/ 



L A S T LETTERS 



FROM 



E G Y P T. 



LAST LETTERS 

FROM 

EGYPT. 



TO WHICH ARE ADDED LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

LADY t)UFF~GORDON. 

6 3 3 

WITH A MEMOIR BY HER DAUGHTER, 

MRS. ROSS. 




MACMILLAN AND CO. 
1875 




londox : 

R- CLAY, SONS, \\r> T n-r nn 

NU "AYLOR, PRINTERS 
BREAD STREET HILL; 




CONTENTS. 

pag a 

Introduction .......,,....,„* i 

Last Letters from Egypt i 
Lettirs from the Cape 187 



INTRODUCTION. 



Lucie Duff Gordon was the only child of 
John and Sara Austin. Her grandfather, Mr. 
Jonathan Austin, of Creeting Mill, in Suffolk, 
was a remarkable man, of sturdy good sense 
and great vigour. He gave all his "children a 
first-rate education. The wisdom and vehe- 
ment eloquence of Mr. John Austin, author of 
le " Province of Jurisprudence/' made Lord 
'ougham say, " If John Austin had had health, 
ither Lyndhurst nor I should have been 
•ancellor and the beauty and talent of his 
fe imparted to a life of narrow means and 
. * ^essant labour the attraction and elegance or 
the best society. Mr. John Austin had served 

b 



ii INTRODUCTION, 

in the army, and was in Sicily under Lord 
William Bentinck. He was called to the bar, 
and in 1819 married Sara, the youngest daughter 
of John Taylor, of Norwich. They lived in 
Queen Square, Westminster, almost next door 
to the house belonging to Mr. James Mill, the 
historian of British India, and their windows 
looked into the garden of Jeremy Bentham. 
These were the most intimate friends of John 
Austin ; and here it may be said the utilitarian 
philosophy of the nineteenth century was born. 
Bentham's garden was the playground of Lucie 
Austin and the young Mills ; his coach-house 
was converted into a gymnasium, and his flower- 
beds were intersected by threads and tapes to 
represent the passages of a panopticon prison. 

Here in Queen's Square was born, June 
24th, 1821, Lucie, the only child of John and 
Sara Austin. She was a puny infant, and could 
scarcely breathe when she came into the world. 
The surgeon, Maudsley, took her on his knees, 
and brought her to life by sheer skill in nursing 
and giving play to the lungs. He afterwards 
used to boast of the exploit, and call her his 
child. 



INTRODUCTION. iii 

Lucie Austin's chief playfellows were her 
first-cousin Henry Reeve, and " Bun Don'' 
(Brother John), as she called the late great 
philosopher, John Stuart Mill. She grew in 
vigour and in sense, with a strong tinge of 
originality and independence, and an extreme 
love of animals. 

It was, I think, in 1826, that the Austins 
first went to Germany. He had been nominated 
Professor of Civil Law in the new London 
University, and he went to Bonn to prepare 
himself in the law school there. As their 
residence in Germany was of some duration 
Lucie came back transformed into a little 
German maiden, with long braids of hair down 
her back, and speaking German like her own 
language. 

Her education was of the most random 
character ; she read everything. She lived in 
a world of fairies and elfs. But she had little 
regular instruction, and accomplishments were 
never attempted. I believe she went for a 
short time to a mixed school of boys and 
girls, kept by a Dr. Biker, at Hampstead, where 
she learnt Latin. 

b 2 



iv INTRODUCTION. 

It would not be easy to say how Lucie 
Austin acquired her correct and vigorous style 
and nice sense of language. It was hereditary 
rather than implanted. But from her earliest 
years she was accustomed to hear the best 
of conversation ; the Mills, the Grotes, the 
Bullers (Charles and Arthur), the Carlyles, the 
Sterlings, Sydney Smith, Luttrell, Rogers, 
Jeremy Bentham, and Lord Jeffrey, were the 
most intimate friends of the family ; and 
u Toodie," as she was called, w r as a universal 
favourite. Once staying at a friend's house, 
and hearing their little girl rebuked for asking 
questions, she said, " My mamma never says, 
' I don't know/ or, 1 Don't ask questions/ " 

In 1836 Mr. Austin was appointed a com- 
missioner to the Island of Malta, and his wife 
accompanied him. It was thought undesirable 
to take a girl of fifteen to a hot climate, and 
she was then for the first time sent to school 
at Clapham, with a Miss Sheperd. She must 
have been as great a novelty in the school 
as the school-life was to her, for with a great 
deal of strange knowledge she was singularly 
devoid of many of the rudiments of ordinary 



INTRODUCTION. 



v 



instruction. She wrote well already at fif- 
teen, and corresponded a good deal with 
Mrs. Grote. The following is one of her first 
letters from school : — 

Nove?nber 6th, 1836. 

As I have permission to write (not without 
due inspection of all letters written and received, 
however), I shall put you to the expense of two- 
pence to tell you how I am getting on. I like 
my convent very much. I cannot give my 
opinion of Miss Sheperd, for I won't praise 
her to her face, and I dare not abuse her if I 
would, so we must wait till Christmas, when 
I have a holiday of a fortnight. I have written 
to mamma and upbraided her for telling me that 
Bromley was but four or five miles from London, 
whereas I find myself at twelve miles off, 
within a little at least. I hope that when you 
have nothing better to do, you will come down 
and see me. Between one and two is the best 
time, as we go out afterwards to walk. Or, 
au pis aller, that you will write me a note, 
letter, or what you will ; so long as it is from 
you I shall be delighted to receive it. I am 
dying to see you or hear from you ; and don't 
hope that you will escape my quartering myself 
upon you for a day at Christmas, for I will 
hold a solemn palaver with you, which I could 



vi INTRODUCTION. 

not accomplish before coming here. I shall 
not be able to write to you again, as I shall not 
have time to write to any one but mamma, and 
not much to her, as, if I do my Latin and Greek 
lessons satisfactorily, I shall be rather hard- 
worked. 

At sixteen she determined on being baptized 
and confirmed as a member of the Church 
of England (her parents and relations were 
Unitarians). Lord Monteagle was her sponsor, 
and I believe this step was chiefly owing to his 
influence and that of his family, with whom she 
was very intimate, in spite of her Radical ideas. 
She thus mentions the event in a letter, re- 
markable for a young girl : — 

Bromley, February 20th, 1838. 
Perhaps you have already heard of my 
having, and I hope most conscientiously, sought 
to be admitted by baptism into the Estab- 
lished Church, and you may think with many 
I ought not to have taken so important a step 
solely on my own responsibility; but till you 
tell me so I will not attempt defence of that 
which does not appear to come under the 
denomination " optional." I believe I have done 
my duty, and acted in obedience to the Giver 



INTRODUCTION. 



vii 



of the " commandment with promise," and that 
in no way could I more honour my parents 
than by confident trust they will sanction my 
conduct. I hope they and I will be but of 
one heart and one mind on this important point. 
I am prepared for some slight crosses from 
many excellent friends, whose creed I never 
could satisfactorily adopt ; but with the " fear 
of God" before my eyes I could not be 
deterred by this difficulty, through which I 
know, if I place- but perfect trust in Him, and 
cultivate humility, His strength will guide 
me. I expect to be pitied for that ignorance 
and weakness which has made me an easy 
victim to others' rule ; but my own heart tells 
me I have no claims upon any such commise- 
ration. My sponsors were wholly unprepared 
for my application to them to become such, and 
had not an unlooked-for and quiet opportunity 
of attending an infant of Mrs. North's to the 
baptismal font offered itself, I had probably yet 
remained in the same painfully unsatisfied state 
of mind that had so long been mine. I already 
experience happiness and advantage in and 
from the views and hopes which from day to 
day seem to unfold themselves more and more, 
and I expect and pray, if I make religion my 
guide, that even the most opposed to my 
present opinions will ultimately rejoice in their 



viii 



INTRODUCTION. 



influence upon my character and conduct, 
Surely you, who have ever been to me the 
best and dearest of friends, will be the last to 
disapprove of anything which could tend to my 
improvement and happiness, which I feel con- 
vinced must be the case with my present faith 
and feelings. 

In 1838 Lucie Austin's parents returned from 
Malta, and she began to appear in the world. 
Mrs. Austin's old friends flocked about her ; 
many new acquaintances mingled with them, 
as the Austins had become habitues of Lans- 
downe House. Here they met Sir Alexander 
Duff Gordon, who at once became attracted 
by the mother, and deeply attached to the 
daughter. They used to walk out together, 
as she was left much to herself, and had no 
companions. One day Sir Alexander said to 
her, " Miss Austin, do you know people say we 
are going to be married ? " She was annoyed 
at being talked about, and hurt at his brusque 
way of mentioning it, and was going to give a 
sharp answer, when he added, " Shall we make it 
true ? " She replied, with characteristic straight- 
forwardness, by the monosyllable, "Yes," and so 



INTRODUCTION. ix 

they were engaged. At this time she translated 
and published Niebuhr s " Greek Legends," the 
only literary work she did before her marriage, 
which took place in Kensington old church, on 
the 1 6th of May, 1840. Eye-witnesses still 
remember with interest the beauty of the young 
pair. They took a house in Queen Square, 
Westminster, No. 8, with a statue of Queen 
Anne at one end, just opposite the house of 
Sir Benjamin Hawes. 

The talent, associated with the beauty, sin- 
cerity, and utter unaffectedness, of Lady Duff 
Gordon, soon attracted a remarkable circle of 
friends and acquaintances, many of whom, alas, 
have passed away. Lord Lansdowne, Lord 
Monteagle, Dickens, Thackeray, Elliot War- 
burton (who was burnt in the Amazon), Tom 
Taylor, Tennyson, Kinglake, and Henry 
Taylor, were habitues, and every foreigner of 
talent and renown looked upon the Duff-Gordon 
house as a centre of interest. I remember when 
a little child to have been much astonished 
at Leopold Ranke walking up and down the 
drawing-room, talking vehemently in a kind of 
vllapodrida of English, French, German, Italian, 



x INTRODUCTION. 

and Spanish, with now and then a Latin quota- 
tion. He was almost impossible to understand, 
as he talked fast and mixed up all languages 
into a compound of his own. When Monsieur 
Guizot escaped from France, his first dinner and 
welcome was in Queen Square. Soon after 
their marriage my father and mother went 
abroad, and she wrote from Munich to Mrs. 
Austin : — 

Our friend Magnus took us to Kaulbach's 
atelier, where we saw his " Hunnerschlacht," his 
" Tollhaus," a great new picture he is designing 
of the destruction of Jerusalem, and last, but 
not least, a set of drawings for a new edition of 
" Reineke Fuchs," for which I could have wor- 
shipped him. The " Lions Court," the " Cock 
accusing Reineke to the King," " Reineke 
keeping School for the Rabbits," and " Reineke 
stellte sich fromm " (over which Alick laughed 
till large tears ran down), were finished ; but 
there will be forty or fifty. If you could see 
Reineke's face and attitude, his shaven crown, 
his downcast eye, and mouth down at the corners 
— in short, the drawings are quite as good as 
the poem. Kaulbach is a wonderful genius ; 
he had beautiful erhaben paintings, drawings 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

which might have been Hogarth's, and this 
Reineke in quite another style ; besides which 
he is a beautiful portrait-painter. We were 
amused by a bookseller, into whose shop we 
went to buy the Gospel of the Life of Maria. 
He had not got it, and wanted us to buy 
Sievert's " Leben Christi." Alick, not hearing 
the name of the author, asked if it was Strauss's. 
The poor man looked shocked and frightened, 
and on our expressing decorous sympathy with 
his feelings, he added, in a most confidential 
tone, " Aber wissen Sie doch, gnadige Frau, es 
gibt auch Freigeister hier in Augsburg !" His 
face was inimitable, and we only suppressed our 
laughter till the door closed behind us. 

In 1842 their eldest child was born, and in 
1844 Lady Duff Gordon published her trans- 
lation of Meinhold s " Amber Witch," and of u 
the " French in Algiers." The year after she *~ 
translated Feuerbach's " Remarkable German 
Crimes and Trials." 

In 1846 my father had the cholera very 
badly, and Lord Lansdowne, ever thoughtful 
and kind, lent him his villa at Richmond for 
the autumn. Thence my mother wrote : — 



xii 



INTRODUCTION. 



Richmond, August 1846. 

Here we are in the most perfect of villas ; 
were the weather but tolerable it would be a 
paradise, but, alas ! November could not be 
more cold, damp and gloomy than this August. 
The Berrys are here in Mrs. Lamb's house, 
and Lady Char. [Lady Charlotte Lindsay] at 
Petersham, all well and youthful. Mr. Senior is 
vacation master in London this year again, and 
finds us a godsend for his Saturdays and 
Sundays. We have had various people here, 
and many more have announced their intention 
of coming. Lord Lansdowne was here for a day 
in passing through London, and he w T as " so 
much obliged for our kind hospitality in giving 
him a dinner and a bed." Dwarkanauth 
Tagore, the clever Hindoo merchant, and 
Landseer and Eastlake. 

The most amusing book this year is Ford's 
" Handbook of Spain," one of the " Red Mur- 
rays." It is written in a style between " Bur- 
ton's Anatomy of Melancholy " and any work 
by the immortal Sancho Panza, had he ever 
written a book — so quaint, so lively, and such 
knowledge of the country. How I envy you 
Munich. If you see Kaulbach, tell him how 7 
often we talk of him, his pictures, and his 
beautiful little girl ; and look at Albrecht 
Durer's pale, beautiful face in the gallery, and 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

griiss him for me — so sweet and so sad, no 
print could ever catch the life in the face and 
in the very hair. 

This house is Bowood on a diminished scale. 
Hassan (a black boy) is an inch taller for our 
grandeur — pen sen faut, he thinks me a great 
lady and himself a great butler. 

u Hassan el Bakkeet " was quite a feature of 
the establishment Lady Duff Gordon had 
taken him in from charity one night, his master 
having turned him out of doors because he was 
going blind. She took care of him, and he 
devoted himself to her and still more to the 
eldest child, whose constant playmate he was. 
Mr. Hilliard, the American author, was much 
shocked at seeing Hassan come into the 
dining-room with the baby in his arms. The 
oculist who cured him offered to take him 
into his service, with good w r ages. His mis- 
tress advised him to accept the place, upon 
which he fell on his knees and begged to be 
whipped instead of being sent away, as he 
said, " 5/. a year with you are sweeter than 
the 12/. a year he offers/' He was then twelve. 

He associated himself entirely with the 



xiv INTRODUCTION. 

family. On the birth of a son he said trium- 
phantly to all callers, " We have got a boy." 
One evening when Prince Louis Napoleon, the 
late Emperor of the French, came unexpectedly 
to dinner, Hassan announced gravely, " Please, 
my lady, I ran out and bought two penny- 
worth of sprats for the Prince." 

Poor Hassan caught cold at Weybridge, and 
died about 1849; and never was a servant 
more regretted. 

In 1847 Sir Alexander and Lady Duff 
Gordon translated together Ranke's " History 
of Prussia," and wrote the " Sketches of Ger- 
man Life." 

Lady Duff Gordon's old friend William 
Bridges Adams, the engineer, had a workshop, 
which she sometimes went to visit. During 
the riots in 1848 the men came to protect 
their " Lady." She thus describes the night 
of the 10th of April : — 

I had only time to write once yesterday, 
as all hands were full of bustle preparing for 
our guests. I never wish to see forty better 
gentlemen than we had here last night. All 
was quiet. We had supper — cold beef, bread 



INTRODUCTION. 



xv 



and beer, with songs, sentiments and toasts, 
such as " Success to the roof we are under," 
" Liberty, brotherhood, and order." Then they 
bivouacked in the different houses till five 
o'clock this morning, when they started home. 
Among the party was a stray policeman, who 
looked rather wonderstruck. Tom Taylor was 
capital, made short speeches, told stories, and 
kept all in high good humour ; and Alick came 
home at midnight, and w r as received with great 
glee and affection. All agreed that the fright, 
to us at least, was well made up by the kindly 
and pleasant evening. As no one would take a 
penny we shall send books for the library, or 
a contribution to the school, all our neigh- 
bours being quite anxious to pay, though not 
willing to fraternize. I shall send cravats as 
a badge to the " Gordon Volunteers." We had 
one row, which, however, ceased on the appear- 
ance of our stalwart troop. Indeed, I think, 
one Birmingham smith, a handsome fellow six 
feet high, whose vehement disinterestedness 
would neither allow him to eat, drink, or sleep 
in the house, would have scattered them. My 
friends of yesterday unanimously decided that 
Louis Blanc would " just suit the 6 lazy set/ " 

The Austins had taken a long, low, rambling 
old house at Weybridge in Surrey, where we 



xvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



used to spend the summer months ; but the 
house was too small for two families, and in 
the spring of 185 1, my father took a house at 
Esher, about four miles from Weybridge, where 
they lived until my mothers health made it 
necessary for her to leave England. The 
following extracts from letters to a valued and 
intimate friend will tell of her life better than 
I can :— 

Weybridge, ijth October, 1850. 

I have not left Weybridge this summer, 
except to go to Sandgate for three weeks for 
M.'s health. He is very well and immensely 
tall. I still like my campagnarde existence of 
all things ; it just suits my laziness and my chil- 
dren's health and happiness. Alick, too, looks 
ten years younger than he ever did in London. 

I have set up a working mans library and 
reading room here, and have forty subscribers 
at twopence a week. It answers very well, 
I think ; they all like it much ; and I go 
most Monday evenings and transact the busi- 
ness, and talk over the news. I hope it will 
do some good here ; at any rate it keeps a few 
out of the public-house. I don't know any 
news to tell you of any one, as indeed how 
should I ? But I should like to know the 



INTRODUCTION. 



xvi; 



most sage reasons which lead you to become a 
Protectionist. I fear the insular and colonial 
life has begun to affect your intellect, and that 
you will want a good deal of scouring when 
you come home. 

Esher, May isl t 1851. 

When I received your letter of 20th January 
I w r as still in bed, having lain there six weeks, 
sick of bronchitis and intermittent fever, which 
seized me at Weybridge, immediately after 
nursing the children through the measles. I 
state this to account for my not writing either 
in March or April. I am now nearly well 
again, but had a very narrow escape for my 
life. If you looked at my date it will already 
have told you that w r e have left Weybridge. 
We have also left Queen Square and moved 
all our goods and ourselves to a very nice 
old-fashioned house, on the top of a high 
hill, close to Claremont, which joins our garden 
and field, and where beds can be given to 
our friends. I only wish you were installed 
in one of them. 

I am still very weak, but very busy getting 
my house in order, and cannot go to London 
yet, even to see the Exhibition. I will send 
you many thanks for the sugar or " bag 
full of anything," when it arrives, but I am 

c 



xviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



uneasy about it, as I fear it has been made 
into grog on board ship ; it is, however, not 
needed to sweeten our remembrance of you. 
My library at Weybridge was very successful. 
I have left it with sixty members, self-support- 
ing, and very well self-governed. 

My father is not well, I think he is much 
aged of late. Lord Langdale's death affected 
him terribly, and our leaving Weybridge was 
a great annoyance to him, but the house was 
impossibly small. 

Esher, 20th July, 185 1. 

% will devote this solitary Sunday evening 
to a gossip with you ; how I wish it could 
be done viva voce instead of with these odious 
implements, pen, ink, and paper. Imprimis, 
the sugar came quite safe, and is the admira- 
tion of all coffee-drinkers. To-day I ought to 
be dining at Seniors (where Alick is spending 
some^ days), but I feel too low and exactly what 
is called " not up" to anything. Our house is 
charming, on the top of a sandy hill, so dry 
and healthy, and warm, and pretty. We have 
a kind of half project of going to Scotland 
this year, and of visiting Stirling, at Keir, to- 
gether w r ith Mrs. Norton and her son, with 
whom I am nearly as much friends as with 
his mother. He has grown into a delightful 



INTRODUCTION. 



xix 



young man, and certainly twenty-one is a 
charming age, when it is not odious. 

I fear you would think me very much altered 
since my illness ; I look thin, ill, and old, and 
my hair is growing grey. This I consider 
hard upon a woman just over her thirtieth birth- 
day. I break the melancholy fact to you now 
lest somebody should be beforehand with me. 
I continue to like Esher very mudh ; I don't 
think we could have placed ourselves better. 
Kinglake has given Alick a great, handsome 
chestnut mare, so he is well-mounted, and -we 
ride merrily. 

Esher, iSfk August, 185-1. 
T'will, indeed, 'be jolly if you get a conge, 
and come over for six months, but then 
there's the going back again, which will be 
dreadful. We went over to Paris for a lafk, 
and 'twas so hot, 92 to -95°. Barthelemy St 
Hilaire lent us his rooms, and Phillips, the 
painter, lodged in the same house -with us, 
and we had a very cnerry time. I am far 
better than I thought I ever should be again ; 
the heat in Paris did me a wonderful deal of 
good, and I now feel able once mors to use my 
lungs. I like my rural existence better and 
better, the garden, horses, and the health and 
happiness for the children are better than all 
London ylife whatever. I expressed such glee 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



and exaltation at the idea of your return, 
that my friends, all but Alick, refused to sympa- 
thise. Phillips talked of jealousy and Tom 
Taylor muttered something about a " hated 
rival/' Meanwhile all send friendly greetings 
to you. 

ESHERj i$th June, 1854. 
Now for news. Alick is very well and 
extremely portly and dignified looking. I am 
rather better, but quite old, and my hair quite 
grey. 

Last Thursday we went to E 's wedding, 

and all went off like the end of a novel. Every- 
body made pretty speeches ; bride and bride- 
groom looked equally lovely, and we " blessed 
them unawares/' and threw white satin slippers 
after them instead of old shoes. 

We have just finished translating a book of 
Moltke's, a Prussian major, on the -Russian 
campaigns of 1828 — 29, very interesting, es- 
pecially now that all the world is thinking and 
talking of the war. 

I saw the opening of the Crystal Palace on 
the 10th, which was a fine sight as far as the 
building and the crowd went, but a very 
ridiculous ceremony. I wish I were with you 
enjoying some heat. I am now poking the 
fire, at noonday, on the 15th June, and have 



INTRO D UCTIOX. xxi 

rheumatism so that I can hardly write at all 
I shall leave Alick to finish this tiresome yarn, 
as he may have some news to tell you, which 
such a country mouse as I cannot. 

Our dear old house at Esher was nothing 1 
very remarkable in itself, having been, I believe, 
an inn, with a small cottage near. The space 
between the two had been built over and made 
the dining-room and drawing-room, L shaped. 
But the house was full of quaint old furniture 
and china, and the pretty garden sloped up- 
wards from the back of the house to Claremont 
Park palings. The view from the front windows 
was beautiful ; the " sluggish Mole " and 
Wolsey s tower in the foreground, and Wind- 
sor Castle in the far distance. Many a merry 
boating party did we have on the Mole, with 
picnics in the woods, varied by now r and then 
knocking a hole in the bottom of the boat, on 
one of the many snags and hidden stumps of 
trees, with which the river abounds. Once we 
lost all our wine, which was hung overboard to 
cool, and my father and Henry Phillips had 
to dive for it in very deep water, while Ary 
Scheffer, who was staying at Esher to paint 



xxii INTRO D UCTION. 

Queen Marie Amelie's portrait, and Richard 
Doyle, stood ready to assist in the recovery of 
the lost bottles. 

The rides were most beautiful — over endless 
commons, through large covers and green, 
shady lanes, and m the fir-wood behind Clare- 
mont, with its small lake called the " Black 
Pool " in the centre. It was near this lake 
that the Comte de Paris broke his leg out 
hunting ; his horse ran away and smashed his 
leg against a tree, It was raining, and I gave 
my waterproof to put under the Prince, and 
galloped off to announce the accident at Clare - 
mont, for fear the Queen Marie Amelie 
should be alarmed at seeing the Comte de 
Paris carried up to the house. The Princes 
always sent to tell us of the meets of their 
harriers, and we had famous runs in the 
cramped country about ; small fields, big fences, 
and large water jumps in the low-lying land 
near the river. They were most popular with 
everybody, and they well deserved it, being 
kind, courteous and amiable to all. 

In the autumn of 1854 we all went to Paris 
where my mother often saw Heinrich Heine, 



INTRODUCTION, 



xxiii 



the poet. The following letter has already 
been published in Lord Houghton's mono- 
graphs : — 

My husband tells me that you wish to 
have my recollections of poor Heine when I 
last saw him. I had known him about twenty 
years ago as a child of ten or eleven at 
Boulogne, where I sat next him at table 
ahote. He was then a fat, short man, short- 
sighted, and with a sensual mouth. He heard 
me speak German to my mother, and soon 
began to talk to me, and then said, " When 
you go back to England you can tell your 
friends that you have seen Heinrich Heine. " 
I replied, " And who is Heinrich Heine ? ; ' 
He laughed heartily, and took no offence at 
my ignorance ; and we used to lounge on the 
end of the pier together, where he told me 
stories in which fish, mermaids, watersprites, 
and a very funny old French fiddler with a 
poodle, who was diligently taking three sea- 
baths a day, were mixed up in the most fanciful 
manner, sometimes humorous, and very often 
pathetic, especially when the watersprites 
brought him greetings from the " Nord See." 
He since told me that the poem " Wenn ich 
an deinem Hause, ;> etc., was meant for me and 
my " braune Augen." He was at Boulogne a 



XXIV 



INTR ODUC TION. 



month or two, and I saw him often then, and 
always remembered with great tenderness the 
poet who had told me the beautiful stories and 
been so kind to me, and so sarcastic to every- 
one else. 

I never saw him again till I went to Paris 
three years ago, when I heard he was very 
poor, and dying. I sent my name, and a 
message that if he chanced to remember the 
little girl to whom he told " Mahrchen " years 
ago at Boulogne, I should like to see him. 
He sent for me directly, remembered every 
little incident and all the people who were in 
the same inn ; a ballad I had sung, which re- 
counted the tragical fate of Ladye Alice and 
her humble lover, Giles Collins, and ended by 
Ladye Alice taking only one spoonful of the 
gruel, " with sugar and spices so sweet," while 
after her decease, " the parson licked up the 
rest." This diverted Heine immensely, and 
he asked after the parson who drank the gruel 
directly. 

I, for my part, could hardly speak to him, so 
shocked was I by his appearance. He lay on 
a pile of mattresses, his body wasted so that 
it seemed no bigger than a child under the 
sheet that covered him, the eyes closed, and 
the face altogether like the most painful and 
wasted Ecce Homo ever painted by some 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXV 



old German painter. His voice was very weak, 
and I was astonished at the animation with 
which he talked ; evidently his mind had 
wholly survived his body. He raised his 
powerless eyelids with his thin, white fingers, 
and exclaimed, " Gott ! die kleine Lucie ist 
gross geworden, und hat einen Mann ; dass ist 
eigen ! " [God ! the little Lucie has become 
big and has a husband ; that is queer.] He 
then earnestly asked if I was happy and con- 
tented , and begged me to bring my husband to 
see him. He said again he hoped I was happy 
now, as I had always been such a merry child. 
I answered that I was no longer so merry as 
" die kleine Lucie " [the little Lucie] had been, 
but very happy and contented ; and he said, 
" Dass ist schon ; es bekommt Einem gut eine 
Frau zu sehen, die kein wundes Herz herum 
tragt, um es von allerlei Mannern ausbessern 
zu lassen, wie die Weiber hier zu Lande, die 
es am Ende nicht merken, dass was ihnen 
eigentlich fehlt ist gerade, dass sie gar kerne 
Herzen haben." [That is well ; it does one 
good to see a woman who does not carry about 
a broken heart, to be mended by all sorts of 
men, like the women of this country, who do 
not perceive that what really fails them is a 
total want of heart] I took my husband to 
see him, and we bid him goodbye. He said 



xxvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



that he hoped to see me again, ill as he was ; 
he should not die yet. 

Last September I went to Paris again, and 
found Heine removed and living in the same 
street as myself in the Champs Elysees. I 
sent him word I was come, and soon received 
a note, painfully written by him in pencil, as 
follows : — 

" Hoch geehrte grossbritannische Gottin 
Lucie, — 

" Ich liess durch den Bedienten zurlick-mel- 
den,dass ich,mit Ausnahme des lezten Mitwochs, 
alle Tage und zu jeder beliebigen Stunde 
bereit sey, your Godship bey mir zu empfangen. 
Aber ich habe bis heute vergebens auf solcher 
himmlischen Erscheinung gewartet. Ne tardez 
plus a venir ! Venez aujourd'hui, venez demain, 
venez souvent. Vous demeurez si pres de 
moi, dem armen Schatten in den Elisaischen 
Feldern ! Lassen Sie mich nicht zu lange 
warten. Anbey schicke ich Ihnen die vier 
ersten Bande der franzosischen Ausgabe meiner 
ungltickseligen Werke. Unterdessen verharre 
ich Ihrer Gottlichkeit, 

" Unterthanigsten and ergebensten Anbeter, 

*- Heinrich Heine. 



k( N.B. The parson drank the gruel water. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxvii 



[Highly honoured Greatbritannic goddess 
Lucie, — 

I send word back by the servant, that 
with the exception of last Wednesday, I was 
ready to receive your godship any day and at 
any hour. But I have waited in vain till 
to-day for any such heavenly apparition. 
Ne tardez plus a venir! Venez aujourd' hui, 
venez demain, venez souvent. Yous demeurez 
si pres de moi, the poor shadow in the Elysian 
fields ! Do not let me wait too long. Here- 
with I send you the four first volumes of the 
French translation of my unhappy works. 
Meanwhile, I remain, of your godhead, 

The most humble and reverential adorer, 
Heinrich Heine. 

N.B. The parson drank the gruel water.] 

I went immediately, and climbed up stories 
to a small room,, where I found him still 
on the pile of mattresses on which I had left 
him three years before ;. more ill he could not 
look, for he looked dead already, and wasted 
to a shadow. When I kissed him his beard 
felt like swans down or baby's hair, so weak 
had it grown, and his face seemed to me to 
have gained a certain beauty from pain and 
suffering. He was very affectionate to me 



xxviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



and said, " Ich habe jetzt mit der ganzen 
Welt Frieden gemacht, und endlich auch mit 
dem lieben Gott, der schickt mir dich nun als 
schoner Todeseno;el : gfewiss sterb Ich bald." I 
said, " Armer Dichter, bleiben Ihnen doch immer 
so viele herrliche Illusionen. dass Sie eine reis- 
ende Ensflanderin fur Azrael aussehen konnen ? 
Das vrar sonst nicht der Fall, Sie konnten 
uns ja nicht leiden." He answered, "Ja, mein 
Gott, ich weiss doch o-ar nicht was ich ^eo-en 
die Englander hatte, dass ich immer so boshaft 
gegen sie war ; es war aber wahrlich nur 
Muthwillen, eigentlich hasste ich sie nie, und 
ich habe sie auch nicht gekannt. Ich war 
einmal in England, kannte aber Niemand, una 
fand London recht traurig, und die Leute 
auf der Strasse kamen mir unausstehlich vor. 
Aber England hat sich schon geracht, sie 
schickte mir ganz verziiglich Freunde — dich, 
und Milnes, der gute Milnes, und noch 
andere." [ u I have now made peace with all 
the world, and, at last, also with God ; he has 
sent you to me as a beautiful angel of death ; 
certainly I shall soon die." I said, " Poor Poet, 
do such splendid illusions still remain to you, 
that you take a travelling Englishwoman for 
Azrael ? That used not to be so, for you could 
not bear us. ,, He answered, "Yes; I do not 
know what possessed me against the English, 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxix 



that I was always so spiteful towards them, 
but it really was only petulance : in reality I 
never hated them, and never knew them. I 
was once in England, but knew no one, and 
found London very dreary, and the people in 
the streets appeared to me insupportable. But 
England has revenged herself well ; she has 
sent me really good friends — you and Milnes, 
that good Milnes, and others/'] I saw him two or 
three times a week during a two months' stay 
in Paris, and found him always full of lively 
conversation and interest in everything, and 
of his old undisguised vanity, pleased to re- 
ceive Da d translations of his works, and anxious 
beyond measure to be well translated into 
English. He offered me the copyright of ail 
his works as a gift, and said he would give me 
carte blanche to cut out ail I thought necessary 
on my own account, or that of the English 
public, and made out lists of how I had better 
arrange them, which he gave me. He sent me 
all his books, and was boyishly eager that I 
should set to wx>rk and read him some in 
English, especially a prose translation of his 
songs, which he pressed me to undertake with 
the greatest vehemence, against my opinion of 
its practicability. 

He talked a great deal about politics in the 
same tone as in his later writings — a tone of 



xxx INTRODUCTION. 

vigorous protest and disgust of mob tyranny, 
past, present, and future ; told me a vast 
number of stories about people of all parts, 
which I should not choose to repeat ; and 
expressed the greatest wish that it were possible 
to get well enough to come over and visit me, 
and effect a reconciliation with England. On 
the whole, I never saw a man bear such 
horrible pain and misery in so perfectly un- 
affected a manner. He complained of his 
sufferings, and was pleased to see tears in 
my eyes, and then at once set to work to 
make me laugh heartily, which pleased him 
just as much. He neither paraded his anguish 
nor tried to conceal it, or to put on any stoical 
airs. I thought him far less sarcastic, more 
hearty, more indulgent, and altogether pleasanter 
than ever. After a few weeks he begged me 
not to tell him when I was going, for that he 
could not bear to say " Lebevrohl auf ewisf " 
[Good bye for ever], or to hear it, and repeated 
that I had come as " em schoner, gtitiger 
Todesengel " [a beautiful, kindly angel of 
death], to bring him greetings from youth 
and from Germany, and to dispel all the 
" bosen franzosischen Gedanken " [wicked 
French thoughts] When he spoke German to 
me he called me <k Du," and used the familiar 
expressions and terms of language which 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXXI 



Germans use to a child ; in French I was 
" Madame," and " Vous." 

It was evident that I recalled some happy 
time of his life to his memory, and that it 
was a relief to him to talk German, and to 
consider me still as a child. He said that 
what he liked so much was that I laughed so 
heartily, which the French could not do. I 
defended " la vieille gaiete Francaise," but he 
said, " Oui, c est vrai, cela existait autrefois, 
mais avouez, ma chere, que c'etait une gaiete 
un peu bete." He had so little feeling for what 
I liked best in the French character that I 
could see he must Tiave lived only with those 
of that nation who " sit in the scorners seat;" 
whereas, while he laughed at Germany, it was 
with " des larmes dans la voix/" He also 
talked a good deal about his religious feelings ; 
much displeased at the reports that he had 
turned Catholic. What he said about his own 
belief, hope, and trust would not be understood 
in England, nor ought I, I think, to betray the 
deeper feelings of a dying man. The impres- 
sion he made on me was so deep that I had 
great difficulty to restrain my tears till I had 
left the room the last few times I saw him, 
and shall never forget the sad pale face and 
the eager manner of poor Heine. 



xxxii I NT ROD UCTION. 

My mother's health got worse and worse, 
and after trying Ventnor for two or three 
winters, she was advised to go a long sea 
voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. She went 
out in i860 in a sailing vessel. Her letters 
from thence are here republished, and show the 
kindly nature and large-minded humanity which 
characterised her. In 1862 she returned rather 
better, but was persuaded to go the Eaux 
Bonnes, which did her great harm ; from there 
she went to Egypt, and at first the fine dry 
climate seemed to arrest the progress of the 
malady. Her letters will tell of her life there 
better than I can, and will show why the Arabs 
still speak of her with such love and reverence. 
She returned to England once to see her family 
and her old friends, and my father went to 
visit her at Cairo. In 1866 she was very 
much altered by illness, but the old charm of 
manner, the eloquent talk, and the sympathy 
with everybody and everything, oppressed by 
suffering, still remained. 

In 1867, through the kindness of Nubar 
Pasha, I was enabled to go up the Nile in a 
Government steamer, and say goodbye to my 



INTRODUCTION, xxxiii 

mother prior to quitting Egypt for good. My 
husband and I left Cairo late in February, and 
stuck on various sand-banks, as the river was 
very low. On our arrival at the different 
coaling stations and stopping places, the vil- 
lages seemed almost deserted, and there was 
very little food to be bought. Our servant, 
Mohammed, a sharp lad of about sixteen, at 
last solved the mystery by explaining that we, 
being in a Government steamer, were supposed 
to be people who would be more likely to dis- 
tribute kicks than paras, and said he w r ould 
soon set that to rights. So Mohammed tumbled 
over the steamer s side, and swimming like a 
fish, went ashore, and, cutting off a corner at 
a long bend of the river, he entered the next 
village, where we were to anchor, and pro- 
claimed that in the steamer was the daughter 
of the " Sitt el Kebeer," the great lady (as the 
Arabs called my mother), who, like the Sitt, 
was just, and had a heart that loved the Arabs. 
From that time we had no more difficulties 
about food, save to make the people take 
money. In Egypt it is wonderful how fast 
news travels. In many places we found people 

b 



xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 

waiting with presents of milk and Arab bread, 
fowls and eggs. One had been cured by the 
" Sitt el Kebeer," another had a cousin to whom 
she had been kind, to some one else she had 
given a lift in her boat, and so on all the way 
up the Nile. At Thebes we were expected, 
a man from Keneh having ridden on to an- 
nounce the glad tidings to my mother ; and the 
Ulema actually sent the religious flags to 
decorate her house and meet us. The sakkas 
(water-carriers) had sprinkled a path for us 
from the rivers bank to her house, and there 
was general rejoicing in the little village. Of 
course all the notabilities of the place came to 
have a look at the " Howagar" (gentleman, 
really merchant), and the daughter of the Sitt ; 
and we had endless salaaming to do. The 
bedawees came and did fantasia under the 
balcony, galloping round, their lances stuck in 
the ground, and shouting wildly. They insisted 
too on accompanying us to the tombs of the 
kings in the valley opposite, and the ferryman 
would not let us pay him for taking us across 
the river. 

Then we had to dine with Seleem Effendi, 



INTRODUCTION. xxxv 

the Maohn of Luxor, a pleasant man, with 
a dear old wife, who would serve us, in spite 
of my husband's presence. Our procession to 
dinner was very funny, and at the same time 
touching. My mother on her donkey, which 
I led, two servants in front with lanterns, and 
the faithful Omar, dressed in his best, carrying 
a sw r eet dish he had expended all his skill upon. 
My husband on the other side of my mother, 
and then more lantern-bearers. As we passed 
the people crowded round and called on Allah 
to bless us ; and some threw down their cloaks 
for my mother to ride over, while the women 
lifted the hem of her dress to their lips and 
foreheads. 

We had a most elaborate dinner of many 
courses, all very good, but very odd ; and we 
made no end of pretty speeches to each other ; 
and then we had chibouques and coffee, and the 
Maohn's wife actually came in and sat with us, 
notwithstanding the presence of the " Howagar." 
He belonged to the " Sitt el Kebeer," that was 
enough. We remained three days at Luxor, 
and then went up to Assouan, my mother 
accompanying us, and everywhere was the same 

b 2 



xxxvi INTROD UCTION. 

love and reverence shown her, We went to 
Philae, above the first cataract, in a little boat, 
and spent a whole day in that lovely island, 
sitting under the portico of an old temple and 
gazing far away into Nubia, talking of him who 
sleeps in Philae, and whom old Herodotus 
would not name. 

On our return to Thebes, my mother hoped 
to find her own boat, which was let to some 
friends, and to be able to have the loan of it 
for two days, so as to go down the river with 
us as far as Keneh, and then sail back. But 
the Urania had not arrived, and we were 
much disappointed at having to give up our 
proposed trip, when a Nubian trader, who had 
heard from our crew that the " Sitt el Kebeer " 
wished for a boat, came to the house and asked 
for an audience. He left his shoes outside the 
door, and with many salaams said that he had 
turned out all his T goods on the bank, had 
cleaned his boat well, and had come to offer 
her to the " Sitt el Kebeer," who during the 
cholera had saved a nephew of his who was 
passing by on his boat, and had been taken ill 
at Luxor. My mother refused unless the man 



INTRODUCTION. xxxvii 

would take payment, saying it was not fair to 
detain him on his journey, and perhaps spoil 
the sale of his goods. He made a most elo-^ 
quent speech, and ended by saying that of 
course his boat was not worthy of the honour 
of harbouring " Noor-ala-Noor " (another name 
they called my mother — " Light from the 
light 5 '), but that he had hoped it might have 
been accepted, and that he was very sad and 
mortified, and, by Allah, did not care for his 
goods one para; that the "Sitt" had often 
accepted a bad donkey to ride from a poor 
man in order to do a courteous act, when she 
might have had the Maohn's white one; but 
that he was a "meskeen" (poor fellow), and 
his boat would certainly bring him ill luck 
henceforward. Then Omar stepped forward 
and spoke for the Nubian, and the end was 
that my mother accepted the boat, and Omar 
promised to make him accept a present. 

So we started next morning for Keneh in 
the steamer, towing the boat behind us. Half 
the population of Luxor came to say good-bye, 
and every one brought a present. One had a 
chicken, another eggs, another milk and butter ; 



xxxviii INTRODUCTION. 

one had baked specially during the night in 
order to give us fresh bread. Dear Sheykh 
Yoosuf gave me some beautiful antiquities, and 
a Copt Teodoros, whose little boy my mother 
had nursed and taught to write and read 
English, wanted me to take an alabaster jar, 
out of a tomb, worth certainly twenty napoleons. 
He had already given me Scarabaei and other 
things, so I refused with many thanks, unless 
he would let me pay for it. He went away, 
but sent me down some other things by a 
friend some months after, worth double. One 
poor woman brought us the lamb she had 
reared for the Bairam feast, and when we said 
that we really could net take such a present, 
she ran away, leaving her lamb on board. He 
became a great pet and a regular fighting ram 
in Alexandria, and went out with the horses 
in the morning to bathe in the sea. I bought 
her another lamb at Keneh, and sent it back 
by my mother. 

At Keneh, the Maohn sent his donkey splen- 
didly caparisoned, with a sais, for my mother, and 
insisted on caving" us an entertainment. First 
a dinner, excellent but endless, and afterwards 



INTRODUCTION. xxxix 

the two famous dancing girls, Zeyneb and 
Lateefeh, danced and sang for us. Zeyneb 
was very pretty, had a lovely figure, and was 
very fascinating in manner and voice. 

The most amusing mistake occurred here. 

I had always heard the Maohn spoken of as 

II Oum Azeein," and addressed him so all 
dinner time with great civility. I saw Omar 
laugh behind my mother, and at last he said 
to me, " Oh, Sitt, that is not his name, but 
people call him so for laughing. ' Oum 
Azeein 9 means ■ mother of beauty/ and seest 
thou not that he is ugly and has but one eye ? " 
I was dreadfully put out, and did not know 
how to get out of my blunder ; but Saeed 
Ahmad, with true Arab politeness, pretended 
not to have perceived anything. We rode 
back to the boat with great state, and next 
morning we left my mother to return to Cairo, 
while she sailed back to Thebes. 

The last two years of my mothers life were 
a long struggle against deadly disease, but her 
kindness to, and interest in, the poor people 
who were devoted to her never flagged. My 
brother was with her, and my father and I 



xl IXTRODUCTION. 

were going out to Egypt when we suddenly 
received the news of her death on the 14th 
July, 1869, at Cairo. She had wished to die 
and be buried " among my own people," as she 
said, at Thebes, where the Sheykh had pre- 
pared her tomb among those of his own family, 
who descend from the Prophet. Feeling, how- 
ever, that she would not be able to go back 
to Thebes, she gave orders to be buried as 
quietly as possible in Cairo, where she lies in 
the English cemetery, 

With all her old friends the memory of her 
talent, perfect simplicity, and almost Quixotic 
siding with those in trouble or oppressed, joined 
to singular beauty and great power of language, 
will remain ; saddened by the recollection of the 
dire malady which forced her to leave home 
and friends, and called forth the almost Roman 
stoicism with which she bore very great pain 
uncomplainingly, and always found means to do 
eood to all around her. 

J.R. 



I 



LAST LETTERS 

FROM 

EGYPT. 



Thebes, 2$tk Dec. 1865. 
I wish you, " May all the year be good to 
thee," as we say here — and now for my history. 
We left Cairo on the 5th of December. I was 
not well. No wind as usual, and we were a 
week getting to Benisouef, where the Stam- 
boolee Greek lady who was so kind to me 
last summer in my illness came on board 
with a well-bred Arab lady. I was in bed, 
and only stayed a few hours. On to Minieh 
another five or six days— walked about and 
saw the preparations for the Basha's arrival 
Nothing so flat as these affairs here. Not a 
creature went near the landing-place but his 
own servants, soldiers, and officials. I thought 

L 



2 LAST LET1ERS FROM EGYPT. 

of the arrival of the smallest of German 
princes, which makes ten times the noise, 
Next on to Sioot. Ill again, and did not 
land or see any one. On to Girgeh, where 
we only stayed long enough to deliver money 
and presents which I had been begged to 
take for some old sailors of mine to their 
mothers and wives there. 

Between Sioot and Girgeh an Abyssinian 
slave came and wanted me to steal him ; he 
said his master was a Copt, and ill-used him, 
and the lady beat him : but Omar sagely 
observed to the sailors, who were very anxious 
to take him, that a bad master did not give 
his slave such good clothes and even a pair 
of shoes — quel • luxe I — and that he made too 
much of his master being a Copt : no doubt 
he was a lazy fellow, and perhaps had run 
away with other property besides himself. 
Soon after I was sitting right on the pointed 
bow of the boat, with the Reis, who was 
sounding with his painted pole {vide antique 
sculptures and paintings) and the men towing, 
when suddenly something rose to the surface 
close to us : the men cried out " Beni Adam!" 
and the Reis prayed for the dead. It was 
a woman : the silver bracelets glittered on 
the arms raised and stiffened in the agon}/ 
of death, and the knees were drawn up. I 



THEBES. 3 

shall never forget the horrid sight. " God 
have mercy upon her," prayed my men, and 
the Reis added to me, " Let us also pray for 
her father, poor man ; you see, no robber 
has done this [on account of the bracelets]. 
We are in the Saeed now, and most likely 
she has blackened her fathers face, and he 
has been forced to strangle her, poor man." 
I said, " Alas ! " and the Reis continued, 
" Ah, yes, it is a heavy thing, but a man 
must whiten his face. Poor man! poor man! 
God have mercy upon him." Such is Saeedee 
point of honour. However, it turned out that 
she was drowned bathing. 

Above Girgeh we stopped awhile at Dishne, 
a large village. I strolled alone, les mains 
dans les poches, " sicut meus est mos ;" and was 
soon accosted with an invitation to coffee and 
pipes in the strangers' place, a sort of room 
open on one side, with a column in the middle, 
like two arches of a cloister, and which in all 
the villages is close to the mosque : two or 
three cloaks were pulled off and spread on 
the ground for me to sit on, and the milk 
which I asked for, instead of the village 
coffee, brought. In a minute a dozen men 
came and sat round, and asked as usual, 
" Whence coniest thou, and whither goes: 
thou ? " and my gloves, watch, rings, &c. are 

B 2 



4 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 



handed round and examined ; the gloves 
always call forth many " Mashallahs." I said, 
M I come from the Frank country, and am 
going to my place" near Abu '1 Haggag." 
Hereupon everyone touched my hand and 
said, " Praise be to God that we have seen 
thee. Don't go on; stay here and take 100 
feddans of land and remain here." I laughed 
and asked, "Should I wear the 'zaboot' (brown 
shirt) and the ' libdeh ' and work in the field, 
seeing; there is no man with me ? " There 
was much laughing, and then several stories 
of women who had farmed large properties 
well and successfully. Such undertakings on 
the part of women seem quite as common 
here as in Europe, and more common than in 
England. 

I took leave of my new friends who had 
given me the first welcome home to the Saeed, 
and we went on to Keneh, which we reached 
early in the morning, and I found my well- 
known donkey-boys putting my saddle on. 
The father of one, and the two brothers of 
the other, were gone to work on the railway 
for sixty days' forced labour, taking their 
own bread, and the poor little fellows were 
left alone to take care of the hareem. As 
soon as we reached the town, a couple of 
tall young soldiers in the Nizam uniform 



THEBES. 5 

rushed after me, and greeted me in English : 
they were Luxor lads serving their time. Of 
course they attached themselves to us for 
the remainder of the day. We then bought 
water jars (the specialite of Keneh) ; and I 
went on to the Cadi's house to leave a little 
string of beads, just to show that I had not 
forgotten the worthy Cadis courtesy in bring- 
ing his little daughter to sit beside me at 
dinner when I went down the river last 
summer. I saw the Cadi giving audience to 
several people, so I sent in the beads and 
my salaam ; but the jolly Cadi sallied forth 
into the street, and " fell upon my neck " 
with such ardour that my Frankish hat was 
sent rolling by contact with the turban of 
Islam. The Cadi of Keneh is the real 
original Cadi of our early days ; sleek, rubi- 
cund, polite — a puisne judge and a dean 
rolled into one, combining the amenities of 
the law and the church ; — with an orthodox 
stomach and an orthodox turban, both round 
and stately. I was taken into the hareem, 
welcomed and regaled, and invited to the 
festival of Seyd Abd er Racheem, the great 
saint of Keneh. I hesitated, and said there 
were great crowds, and some might be of- 
fended at my presence ; but the Cadi de- 
clared " by Him who separated us," that if 



6 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



any such ignorant persons were present, it 
was high time they learnt better, and said 
that it was by no means unlawful for virtu- 
ous Christians, and such as neither hated nor 
scorned the Muslimeen, to profit by, or share 
in, their prayers, and that I should sit before 
the Sheykh's tomb with him and the Mufti ; 
and that, dtc reste, they wished to give thanks 
for my safe arrival. Such a demonstration 
of tolerance was not to be resisted. So 
after going back to rest, and dine in the 
boat, I returned at nightfall into the town 
and went to the burial-place. The whole 
way was lighted up and thronged with the 
most motley crowd, and the usual mixture 
of holy and profane, which we know at the 
Catholic fetes also ; but more prononce here. 
Dancing girls, glittering with gold brocade 
and coins, swaggered about among the brown- 
shirted fellaheen, and the profane singing of 
the Alateeyeh mingled with the songs in 
honour of the Arab prophet chanted by the 
moonshids and the deep tones of the " Allah, 
Allah " of the zickeers. Rockets whizzed 
about and made the women screech, and a 
merry-go-round was in full swing. And now 
fancy me clinging to the skirts of the Cadi 
ul Islam (who did not wear a spencer, as the 
Methodist parson threatened his congregation 



THEBES. 7 

he would do at the Day of Judgment) and 
pushing into the tomb of the Seyd Abd er 
Racheem, through such a throng. No one 
seemed offended or even surprised. I sup- 
pose my face is so well known at Keneh. 
When my party had said a fattah for me and 
another for my family, we retired to another 
Kubbeh, where there was no tomb, and where 
we found the Mufti, and sat there all the 
evening over coffee and pipes and talk. I 
was questioned about English administration 
of justice, and made to describe the process 
of trial by jury. The Mufti is a very dignified 
gentlemanly man, and extremely kind and civil. 
The Cadi pressed me to stay next day and 
dine with him and the Mufti, but I said I 
had a lantern for Luxor, and I wanted tc 
arrive before the Moolid, or festival, was over, 
and only three days remained. So the Cadi 
accompanied me back to the boat, looked at 
my maps, which pleased him very much, 
traced out the line of the railway as he had 
heard it, and had tea. 

Next morning we had the first good wind ? 
and bowled up to Luxor in one day, arriving 
just after sunset. Instantly the boat was 
filled. Of course Omar and the Reis at 
once organized a procession to take me and 
my lantern to the tomb of Abu '1 Haggag — 



8 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

it was the last night but one of his Moolid. 
The lantern was borne between two of my 
sailors ; and the rest, reinforced by men from 
a steamer which was there with a Prussian 
prince, sung and thumped the Darabookeh, 
and we all marched up after I had undergone 
every variety of salutation, from Sheykh Yus- 
sufs embrace to the little boys' kissing of 
hands. The first thing I heard was the hearty 
voice of the old Shereef, who praised God 
that ''our darling " was safe back again, and 
then we all sat down for a talk ; then more 
fattahs were said for me, and for you, and for 
the children ; and I went back to bed in my 
own boat I found that the guard of the 
French house had been taken off to Keneh 
to the works, after lying eight days in chains 
and wooden handcuffs, for resisting, and 
claiming his rights as a French protege. So 
we waited for his return, and for the keys, 
which he had taken with him, in hopes that 
the Keneh authorities would not care to keep 
me out of the house. I wrote to the French 
Consular agent at Keneh, and to the Consul 
at Alexandria, and got the man back the third 
day. What would you think in Europe to 
see me welcome with enthusiasm a servant 
just out of chains and handcuffs ? At the 
very moment, too, that Mohammed and I 



THEBES, 9 

were talking, a boat passed up the river with 
music and singing on board. It was a Sheykh 
el Beled, of a place above Esneh, who had 
lain in prison three years in Cairo, and whose 
friends were making all the fantasia they could 
to celebrate the end of his misfortune : of 
disgrace, il rien est pas question ; and why 
should it ? So many honest men go to prison 
that it is no presumption at all against a man. 

I dined with the Maohn, whose wife cooked 
me the best dinner I ever ate in this country, 
or almost anywhere. The maid, who was in- 
vited, rejoiced the kind old lady's heart by her 
Belgian appreciation of the excellent cookery. 
" Eat, my daughter, eat," — and even I managed 
to give satisfaction. Such Bakloweh I never 
tasted. We removed to the house yesterday, 
and I have had company ever since. 

I was delighted to get your letter, which 
arrived on New Year's-day in the midst of 
the hubbub of the great festival in honour 
of the Saint of Luxor. I wish you could 
have seen two young Arabs (real Arabs from 
the Hegaz, in Arabia) ride and play with 
spears and lances. I never saw anything like 
it — a man who played the tom-fool stood in 
the middle, and they galloped round and round 
him with their spears crossed, and the points 
resting on the ground, in so small a circle 



io LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

that his clothes whisked round with the wind 
of the horses' legs. Then they threw jereeds 
and caught them as they galloped : but the 
most beautiful thing was the perfect mastery 
of the horses ; they were " like water in their 
hands/' as Sheykh Hassan remarked/ I per- 
ceived I had never seen real horsemanship in 
my life before. 

I am now in the "palace" at Luxor with 
my Dahabieh, " arooset e ralee" (the Darling 
Bride), under my windows; quite like a Basha. 
You would like the little boat, and neat smart 
little captain, Reis Mohammed. I have some 
black friends here, great Sheykhs of the 
Ababdeh, who want to take me up to Khar- 
toom, but it would cost about 50/. : so with 
great self-denial, I have refused. Sheykh 
Alee, a very agreeable man from beyond 
Khartoom, has a takhterawan — a litter carried 
between two camels — and could take me 
comfortably. I should like to go and see the 
black country — Mustafa Aga, and Sheykh 
Yussuf would go, and a troop of the Ababdeh. 
Sheykh Alee is so clever and well-bred that 
I should enjoy it much, and the climate at 
this season is delightful. He has been in 
the Denka country, where the men are a 
cubit taller than Sheykh Hassan, whom you 
know, and who inquired tenderly after you. 



THEBES. 1 1 

Do you remember the Denka slave girl who 
was three inches taller than you ? 

In coming up the Nile, we had an alarm 
of robbers. Under the mountain called Gebel 
Foodah, we were entangled in shoals, owing 
to a change in the bed of the river, and 
forced to stay all night : and at three in the 
morning, the Reis sent in the boy to say that 
he had seen a man creeping on all fours — 
would I fire my pistol ? As my revolver had 
been lost in Alexandria, I was obliged to beg 
him to receive any possible troop of armed 
robbers very civilly, and to let them take 
what they pleased. However, Omar blazed 
away with your old cavalry pistols, and 
whether the robbers were frightened, or the 
man was only a wolf, we heard no more of 
the affair. My crew were horribly frightened, 
and kept awake till daybreak. 

The last night before reaching Keneh, forty 
miles north of Luxor, my men held a grand 
fantasia on the bank. There was no wind, 
and we found a quantity of old maize stalks ; 
so there was a bonfire, and no end of drum- 
ming, singing, and dancing. Even Omar re- 
laxed his dignity so far as to dance the dance 
of the Alexandria young men ; and very funny 
it all was. I laughed excessively; especially 
at the modest airs and graces of a great lub- 



12 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 

berly fellow — one Hezayin, who acted the 
bride — in a representation of a Nubian wed- 
ding festivity. The new song of this year 
is very pretty — a declaration of love to a 
young Mohammed, sung to a very pretty tune. 
There is another, rather like the air " Di 
Provenza al mar," in the " Traviata," with ex- 
tremely pretty words. As in England, every 
year has its new song, which all the boys 
sing about the streets. 

Now let me describe the state of things. 
From the Moudeeriat of Keneh only, 25,000 
men are taken to work for sixty days without 
food or pay : each man must take his own 
basket, and each third man a hoe, not a 
basket. If you want to pay a substitute for a 
beloved or delicate son, it costs 1,000 piastres 
— 600 at the lowest ; 800, or even 1 ,000 in 
many cases : and about 300 to 400 for his food. 
From Luxor only, 220 men are gone; of whom 
a third will very likely die of exposure to 
the cold and misery (the weather is unusually 
cold). That is to say, that this little village, 
of at most 2,000 souls, male and female (we 
don't usually count women, from decorum), 
will pay in labour at least 1,320/. in sixty 
days. We have also already had eleven camels 
seized to go up to the Soodan ; a camel is 
worth from 18/. to 40/. Remember this is 



THEBES. 1 3 

the second levy of 220 men within six months, 
each for sixty days, as well as the second 
seizure of camels ; besides the conscription, 
which serves the same purpose, as the soldiers 
work on the Basha's works. The little district 
of Koos, including Luxor, has been mulcted 
of camels, food for them and drivers, to the 
amount of 6,000 purses last week — 18,000/. 
I cast up the amount, and it tallied with what 
I heard. But in Cairo they are paid, and well 
paid. Wheat is now 400 piastres the ardebb 
up here ; the little loaf, not quite so big as our 
penny roll, costs a piastre — about three-half- 
pence. I need not say what the misery is. 
The discontent is no longer whispered. Every- 
one talks aloud, and well they may. 

Shall I tell you what became of the hundred 
prisoners who were sent away after the Gow 
business ? As they marched through the de- 
sert the Greek memlook looked at his list 
each morning, and said, " Hoseyn, Achmet 
Foolan (like the Spanish Don Fuldno y Mr. 
so and so), you are free ; take off his chains." 
Well, the three or four men drop behind, 
where some arnoouts strangle them out of 
sight. This is banishment to Farzogs. Do 
you remember " Le citoyen est elargi " of the 
September massacres of Paris ? Curious coin- 
cidence, is it not ? Of the end of Haggee 



14 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

Sultan I will not speak till I have absolute 
certainty, but I believe the proceeding was 
as I have described — set free in the desert 
and murdered by the way. Everyone is 
exasperated ; the very hareem talk of it ; it 
is in the air. I had not been five minutes in 
some of the villages up the Nile before I 
knew this and much more. 

It is curious how news travels here. The 
people at Luxor knew the day I left Alexan- 
dria, and the day I left Cairo, long before I 
came. They say here that Abu '1 Haggag 
gave me his hand from Keneh, because he 
would not finish his moolid without me. I 
am supposed to be specially protected by him, 
as is proved by my health being so far better 
here than anywhere else. 

By the bye, Sheykh Alee Ababdeh told me 
that all the villages close on the Nile escaped 
the cholera almost completely, whilst those 
who were half or a quarter of mile inland 
were ravaged. At Keneh 250 a day died; 
at Luxor one child was supposed to have died 
of it, but I know the child had diseased liver 
for a year or more. In the desert the Bisha- 
reen and Abadeh suffered more than the 
people at Cairo, and you know the desert is 
usually the place of perfect health ; but fresh 
Nile water seems to be the antidote. Sheykh 



THEBES. 1 5 

Yussuf laid the mortality at Keneh to the 
canal water, which the poor people drink 
there. I believe the fact is as Sheykh Alee 
told me. 

Now I will say good-bye, for I am very 
tired, and will write anon to the rest I was 
very poorly till I got above Sioot, and then 
gradually mended. I am very weak and very 
thin, but by the protection of Abu '1 Haggag 
I suppose I am already much better, and begin 
to eat again. I have not been out since the 
first day, having much to do in the house. I 
was very dreary on Christmas-day away from 
you all, and Omars plum-pudding did not 
cheer me at all, as he hoped it would. He 
begs me to kiss your hand for him, and every 
one sends you salaam, and all lament you are 
not the new consul at Kebeer. 

If the saddle comes, as I hope, I may very 
likely go up to Assouan, and leave the boat 
and servants, and go into the desert for a 
few days to see the place of the Bishareen. 
They won't take any one else ; but you may 
be quite easy about me " in the face " of a 
Sheykh el Arab. Handsome Sheykh Hassan, 
whom you saw at Cairo, will go with me. But 
if my saddle does not come, I fear I should 
be too tired with riding a camel 



16 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

Thebes, wth Feb. 1866. 
I have just received your letter of Christmas 
day, and am glad to answer it with a really 
amended report of myself. . . . Omar was 
so ill with chronic dysentery that I took on 
myself to forbid him to fast at Ramadan this 
year, whereby I incur the pains and penalties 
of his omission, if omission it be. Now 
he, too, has recovered, at least I hope so. I 
sent for one of the Arab doctors of the 
Azizeeyeh steamer to see Omar, and myself 
also, and he was very attentive, and took a 
note of medicines to send me from Cairo by 
a confrere; and when I offered a fee he said, 
" God forbid — it is only our duty to do any- 
thing in the world for you." Likewise a very 
nice Dr. Ingram saw some of my worst cases 
for me, and gave me good advice and help ; 
but I want better books — Kesteven is very 
useful, as far as it goes, but I want something 
more " ausfuhrlich " and scientific. Ramadan 
is a great trouble to me, though Sheykh Yussuf 
tells the people not to fast, if I forbid it ; but 
many are ill from having begun it, and one 
fine old man of about fifty-five died of apoplexy 
on the fourth night. My Christian patient is 
obstinate, and fasts, in spite of me, and will, 
I think, seal his fate ; he was so much better 
after the blistering and Dr. Ingram's mixture. 



THEBES. i 7 

I wish you could have seen a lad of eighteen 
or so, who came here to-day for medicine. I 
think I never saw such sweet, frank, engaging 
manners, or ever heard anyone express him- 
self better : quite une nature distingue e, not 
the least handsome, but the most charming 
countenance and way of speaking. 

My friend the Maohn spent the evening with 
me, and told me all the story of his marriage. 
I wish I could tell it you as he told it, as it 
would give you an idea of the feelings of a 
Muslim honnete homme, which Seleem is 
through and through. He knew his wife 
before he married her, she being twenty-five 
or twenty-six, and he a boy ; she fell in love 
with him, and at seventeen he married her, 
and they have had ten children, all alive but 
two, and a splendid race they are. He told 
me how she courted him with glasses of 
sherbet and trays of sweetmeats, and how her 
mother proposed the marriage, and how she 
hesitated, on account of the difference of age, 
but, of course, at last consented : all with the 
naivest vanity in his own attractions, and great 
extolling of her personal charms, and of her 
many virtues. When Seleem was sent up here 
she could not, or would not, leave her children, 
and so he bought a black slave girl ; on his 
wife's arrival the slave girl was arrogant, and 

c 



iS 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



refused to kiss her hand, and spoke imperti- 
nently of her age, whereupon Seleem gave 
her in marriage to a black man, and pays 
for her support, as long as she chooses to 
suckle her child, which child will in due time 
return to his house. In short, the funda- 
mental idea in it all, in the mind of an upright 
man, is, that if a man- " takes up" with a woman 
at all he must make himself responsible for her 
before the world ; and above all for the fate 
of any child he may have by her ( you see 
the Prophet of the Arabs did not contem- 
plate ladies qui savent nager so well in the 
troubled waters of life as we are now blessed 
with. I do not mean to say many men are 
as scrupulous as my excellent friend Seleem, 
either here or even in our moral society). He 
expatiated upon his wife's personal charms in a 
very quaint way ; the good lady is now sixty, 
and looks it fully ; but he evidently is quite 
as proud of her as ever. As a curious trait 
of primitive manners, he told me of her piety 
and boundless hospitality ; how when some 
friends came late one evening, unexpectedly, 
and there was only a bit of meat, she killed 
a sheep and cooked it for them with her own 
hand. And this is a Cairene lady, and quite 
a lady, too, in manners and appearance. The 
day I dined there she was dressed in very 



THEBES. 1 9 

ragged, old cotton clothes, but scrupulously 
clean ; and she waited on me with a kind, 
motherly pleasure that quite took away the 
awkwardness I felt of sitting down while she 
stood. In a few days she and her husband are 
to dine with me, a thing which no Arab couple 
ever did before (I mean dine out together), 
and the old lady was immensely amused at the 
idea. Omar will cook, and Marie will wait ; 
and all male visitors will be sent to the kitchen. 
Now that I understand all that is said to me, 
and a great deal of the general conversation, 
it is much more amusing. Seleem EfFendi 
jokes me a good deal about my blunders, 
especially my lack of " politikeh" the Greek 
word for what we should call flummery ; and 
my saying lazem (you must, or rather il faut\^ 
instead of humble entreaties. I told him 
to teach me better, but he laughed heartily, 
and said, " No, no, when you say lazem, it 
is lazem, and nobody wants the stick to force 
him to say, Hader (ready) oh Sheykh el Arab 
oh Ameereh." 

Fancy my surprise the other day just when 
I was dictating letters of introduction for some 
inspecting agents to Sheykh Yussuf with three 
or four other people here, in walked Miss 

N whom I had not seen since she was a 

child. She and her father were going up to the 

c 2 



20 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



second cataract. She had done some sketches 
which, though unskilful, were absolutely true 
in colour and effect, and are the very first 
that I have seen that are so. I shall see 
something of them on their return. Mr. 

N looked rather horrified at the turbaned 

society in which he found himself. I suppose 
it did look odd to English eyes. 

We have had three days of the south wind, 
which the Saturday Review says I am not 
to call Samoom ; and I was poorly, and kept in 
bed two days with a cold. By the way I will 
give you the Luxor contribution towards the 
further confusion of the Samoom (or Simoom) 
controversy. I told Sheykh Yussuf that an 
English newspaper, written by particularly 
clever men, said that I was wrong to call the 
bad wind " Samoom " (it was in an article on 
Palgrave's book, I think). Sheykh Yussuf 
said, " True, oh lady, no doubt those learned 
gentlemen " (politely saluting them with his 
hand) " thought one such as thou shouldst have 
written classical Arabic (Arabi fossiek), and 
called it ' al Daboor ; 1 nevertheless, it is proper 
to write it 'S#moom/ not, as some do, 6 Sz- 
moom/ which is the plural of sim " (poison). 
I shook my head, and said, " I did not recollect 
al Daboor!' Then my Reis, sitting at the 
door, offered his suggestion. " Probably the 



THEBES. 



21 



English, who it is well known are a nation 
of sailors, use the name given to the land 
wind by el Bacharieh (the boatman), and call 
it el mereeseh" "But," said I, "the clever 
gentlemen say that I am wrong altogether, 
and never can have seen a real Samoom, for 
that would have killed me in ten minutes. ;; 
Hereupon Sheykh Mohammed el Ababdeh, 
who is not nearly so well polished as his 
brother Hassan, burst into a regular Bedawee 
roar of laughter, and said, " Yah ! what ! do 
the Ganassil (Europeans) take thee for a rat, 
oh lady ? Who ever heard of el Beni-Adam 
(the children of Adam) dying of the wind ? 
Men die quicker of thirst when the Samoom 
blows, and they have no water. But no one 
ever died of the wind alone, otherwise except 
the rats — they do." I give you the opinion of 
their " representative men " — scholar, sailor, 
and Bedawee ; if that helps you to a solution 
of the controversy. 

We have just had a scene, rather startling 
to notions about fatalism, &c. Owing to the 
importation of a good deal of cattle from the 
Soodan, there is an expectation of the preva- 
lence of small-pox, and the village barbers 
are busy vaccinating in all directions to pre- 
vent the infection brought, either by the cattle 
or, more likely, by their drivers. Now, my 



22 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



maid had told me she had never been 
vaccinated, and I sent for Haggi Mahmood 
to cut my hair and vaccinate her. To my 
utter amazement the girl, who has never shown 
any religious bigotry, and does not fast, or 
make any demonstrations, refused peremptorily. 
It appears that the priests and sisters appointed 
by the enlightened administration of Prussia 
instil into their pupils and penitents that vacci- 
nation is a " tempting of God." " Ok, oui" 
she said, "je sais bien que chez nous mes parents 
pouvaient recevoir un proces-verbal, mats il vaut 
mieux cela que (Taller contre la volonte de Dibit. 
Si Dieu le veut, faurai la petite-verole, et sil 
ne veut pas, je ne Vcmrai pas" I scolded her 
pretty sharply, and said it was not only stupid, 
but selfish. " But what can one do ?" as 
Haggi Mahmood said, with a pitying shake 
of his head ; " these Christians are so stupid." 
He blushed, and apologized to me, and said, 
" It is not their fault; all this want of sense 
is from the priests who talk folly to them for 
money, and to keep them afraid before them- 
selves. Poor things, they don't know the 
Word of God/' This is the second contest 
I have had on this subject. Last year it was 
with a Copt, who was all Add til Ken'im and 
so on about his baby, with his child of four, 
dying of small-pox. " Oh, man," said Sheykh 



THEBES. 23 

Yussuf, " if the wall against which I am now 
sitting were to shake above my head, should 
I fold my feet under me, and say 1 allah 
Kereeml or should I use the legs God has 
given me to escape from it ? " 

I had a visit the other day from a lady who, 
as I was informed, had led a loose life in Sioot. 
She has repented, and married a converted 
Copt They are a droll pair of penitents, so 
very smart in their dress and manner. But 
no one se scandalise at their antecedents — 
" neither is it proper to repent in sackcloth 
and ashes, or to confess sins, except to God 
alone. You are not to indulge in telling them 
to others ; it is an offence. Repent inwardly, 
and be ashamed to show it before the people 
— ask pardon of God only," such is Arab 
morality, and a little of this would do no harm 
in Europe methinks. 

Here is a pretty story for you from the 
Hadeth en Neb bee (sayings of the Prophet). 
" Two prophets were sitting together, and 
discoursing of prayer and the difficulty of 
fixing the attention entirely on the act. One 
said to the other, ' Not even for the duration 
of two rekahs (prayers ending with the pros- 
tration and allah akbar) can a man fix his 
mind on God alone/ The other said, 6 Nay, 
but I can do it/ 1 Say then two rekahs' 



24 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



replied the elder of the two ; ' I will give thee 
my cloak/ Now he wore two cloaks — a new 
red one and an old, shabby blue one. The 
younger prophet rose, raised his hands to 
his head, said allah akbai', and bent to the 
ground for his first rekah ; as he rose again, 
he thought 'will he give me the red cloak or the 
blue, I wonder It is very stupid of me not 
to write down all the pretty stories I hear. 
Some day I must bring over Omar with me 
to England, and he will tell you stories like 
Scheherazade herself. A jolly Nubian alien 
told me the other night how in his village no 
man ever eats meat, except on Bairam day ; but 
one night a woman had a piece of meat given 
her by a traveller ; she put it in the oven, and 
went out. During her absence her husband 
came in and smelt it, and as it was just the 
time of the eshe (first prayer, one hour after 
sunset), he ran up to the hill outside the 
village, and began to chaunt forth the Tekbeer 
with all his might — allah akbar, allahu akbar, 
&c, &c, till the people ran to see what was 
the matter. " Why, to-day is Bairam," says 
he. " Where is thy witness, O man/' " The 
meat in the oven." 



THEBES. 



25 



Thebes, 13th February, 1866. 

I await a saddle I can use for a horse, to 
go to visit the Ababdeh up the river, whose 
chief is a lady. Her son takes me. The cold 
weather is over now, and I continue to improve, 
not very fast, but still very sensibly. 

A young French gentleman has arrived with 
letters from the French Consul. He turns out 
to be a " grand prix de Rome" an architect, 
and is a very nice fellow indeed, and a thorough 
gentleman. At first his manner was awkward 
at finding himself quartered on a stranger, and 
a woman ; but we have made great friends, 
and I have made him quite happy by consent- 
ing that he should pay his share of the food. 
He goes out to the Temple at sunrise, and 
returns to dinner at dark, and works well, and 
his drawings are very clever. In short, I am 
much obliged to the French Consul for sending 
me such an intelligent man. An homme 
serieux with an absorbing pursuit is always 
good company in the long run. 

You will be amused and pleased to hear 
how Sheykh Yussuf was utterly puzzled and 
bewildered by the civilities he received from 
the travellers this year, till an American told 
Mustafa I had written a book which had made 
him (the American) wish well to the poor 
people of this country, and desire to behave 



26 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

more kindly to them than would have been 
the case before. 

To-morrow is the smaller Bairam, and I shall 
have all the Hareem here to visit me. 

LUXOR, 22nd February, 1866. 

We have had a cold winter, but not trying. 
There has not been much wind, and the 
weather has been very steady and clear. It 
is just now beginning to get warm, and I of 
course to get better. There has been a good 
deal of nervous headache here this Ramadan. 
I had to attend the Cadi, and several more. 
My Turkish neighbour at Karnac has got a 
shaitan (devil), i.e., epileptic fits, and I was sent 
for to exorcise him, which I am endeavouring 
to do with nitrate of silver ; but I fear imagina- 
tion will kill him, so I advise him to go to 
Cairo, and leave the devil-haunted house. 
My doctoring business has become quite formid- 
able. I should like to sell my practice to any 
" rising young surgeon." It brings in a very fair 
income of vegetables, eggs, turkeys, pigeons, &c. 

I am sending my maid home. I'll have no 
more Europeans out here. Of course an igno- 
rant girl must be bored to death here — a land 
of no amusements and no flirtation is unbear- 
able. I shall get an elderly Arab, or Abyssinian, 
who will be glad of a quiet life, and not plague 



THEBES. . 27 

me at Cairo ; meanwhile a neighbouring slave 
will do for me, as our people say, and Achmet 
is now quite a clever servant. 

There have not been above twenty or thirty 
boats up this year — mostly Americans. There 
are some here now, very nice people, with four 
little children, who create quite a sensation 
in the place, and are " mashallahed" immensely. 
Their little fair faces do look very pretty here, 
and excite great admiration. I was so pleased 
to see two young men, your opposite neigh- 
bours in London, who said they saw you every 
morning go down the street — ojalal that I 
did so too ! It gave me a terrible twinge of 
" Heimweh" I am much better though still 
weakish, and very triste at my long separation. 

Thebes, 17 th March, 1866. 
I went a few days ago out to Medamoot, 
and lunched in Mustafa's tent, among his bean 
harvest. I was immensely amused by the man 
who went with me on to Medamoot, formerly 
an illustrious robber, now a watchman and very 
honest man. He rode a donkey, about the 
size of Stirling's wee pony, and I laughed, 
and said, " The man should carry the ass," 
No sooner said than done, he dismounted, or 
rather let his beast down from between his 
legs, shouldered the donkey, and ran on. His 



28 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



way of keeping himself awake is original ; the 
nights are still cold, so he takes off all his 
clothes, rolls them up and lays them under his 
head, and the cold keeps him quite lively. I 
never saw so powerful, active, and healthy an 
animal. He was full of stories how he had 
had i ,000 stripes of the courbaj on his feet 
and 500 on his loins at once. "Why ?" I asked. 
"Why, I stuck a knife into a cavass who ordered 
me to carry water-melons : I said I was not 
his donkey : he called me worse ; my blood 

got up, and so ! and the Pasha to whom 

the cavass belonged beat me. Oh, it was all 
right, and I did not say ach once, did I ? " 
(addressing another). He clearly bore no 
malice, as he felt no shame. He has a 
grand romance about a city two days' journey 
from Thebes, in the desert, which no one 
finds but by chance, after losing his way ; 
and where the ground is strewed with valuable 
" anteekehs " (antiquities). I laughed, and 
said, " Your father would have seen gold and 
jewels." " True," said he, " when I was 
young, men spit on a statue or the like, when 
they turned it up in digging, and now it is a 
fortune to find one. . . By the way Mr. S. 
has given me such a lovely fragment of a nose, 
mouth and chin, in black granite, so soft and 
sweet you want to kiss her. 



THEBES. 



29 



I again went to Mustafa's tent among the 
bean-gatherers. I think it does me good,. and 
is not too long a ride. The weather has set 
in suddenly very hot, which rather tries every- 
body ; but the air is gloriously fine and clear. 
By Sheriff's advice I drink camel's milk every 
morning. 

Thebes, 31^/ March, 1866. 
As for me I am much better again ; the 
cough has subsided : I really think the Arab 
specific, camel's milk, has done me great good. 
I have mended ever since I took it. It has 
the merit of being quite delicious. I wish I 
could send you a jug of it every morning, 
such as I drink ; it is better than any other 
milk, with thick froth like whipped cream. 
The Arabs think it very good for sick people ; 
and a man called Sheriff brings his camel 
here every morning, and milks her for me ; 
her baby camel is so funny, he looks all legs 
and big black eyes, with soft fluffy, buff- 
coloured hair, and so very little body to such 
tall legs. I wish, too, you could see the 
camels have their dinner ; they are the only 
people who use a table-cloth. The camel 
driver spreads a cloth on the ground, and 
pours a heap of maize (dourra) upon it, and 
then old Mr. and Mrs. Camel sit down at the 



30 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

top and bottom, very gravely, and the others 
all take their places in proper order, and eat 
quite politely, bowing their long necks up and 
down ; only one was sulky, and went and had 
his dinner by himself, like a naughty boy, and 
sometimes, the man said, he would not eat 
at all. 

Nothing amuses my Arab friends so much 
as the atlas I brought with me. Sheykh 
Hassan el xA.babdeh, the black Sheykh, es- 
pecially, sits on the carpet for hours, looking 
at the maps, and asking questions. He never 
saw any before, but he understands them very 
well, and I found that he knew that the world 
was round, before I told him so. 

A Coptic boy brought me such a beautiful, 
big lizard, who lives in trees, about a yard long, 
but he scratched so much, and was so wild, 
that I let him go after a few days, as he would 
not eat, and I feared he might die ; he was 
very handsome indeed. The house is full of 
little brown lizards who run on the ceilings, 
and catch flies, and chirrup very loud indeed ; 
they have curious feet, with round tips to 
their toes, to stick tight to all the walls and 
ceilings, and run quite fast in that topsy- 
turvy way. I have just killed the first snake 
of this year. 

Yesterday I was very much amused when I 



THEBES. 31 

went for my afternoon's drink of camel's milk, 
to find Sheriff in a great taking at having been 
robbed by a woman, under his very nose. 
He saw her gathering kommuz (chick peas) 
from a field under his charge, and went to 
order her off, whereupon she coolly dropped 
the end of her boordeh which covered the 
head and shoulders, effectually preventing him 
from going near her ; made up her bundle 
and walked off. His respect for the " harem" 
did not, however, induce him to refrain from 
strong language. 

The French architect has made very pretty 
drawings of the mosque here, both outside 
and in ; it is a very good specimen of modern 
Arab architecture ; and he won't believe it 
could be built, without ground plan, elevations, 
&c, which amuses the people here, who build 
without any such invention. 

Mr. and Miss N. are here, working hard at 
sketching, and my French friend will take a 
place in their dahabieh (my old zint el Bahreyn), 
and leave me in six or seven days. I shall 
be quite grieved to lose his company — he is 
very clever, very hard-working, and a thorough- 
bred gentleman— we are quite low-spirited at 
parting with him after a month spent together 
at Thebes. 

The harvest here is splendid this year, and 



32 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

prices have fallen considerably ; but meat, 
butter, &c, remain very dear. My fame as a 
" Hakeehmeh " has become far too great, and 
on market days I have to shut up shop — yester- 
day a very handsome woman came, for medicine 
to make her beautiful, as her husband had 
married another who teazed her, and he rather 
neglected her. And a man offered me a camel- 
load of wheat, if I would read something over 
him and his wife to make them have children. 
I don't try to explain to them how irrational 
they are, but use the more intelligible argument 
that all such practices savour of the Ebn er 
Rukkeh (equivalent to black art), and are 
haram to the greatest extent; besides, I add 
being " all lies " into the bargain. The appli- 
cants for child-making and charm-reading are 
Copts or Muslims, quite in equal numbers, and 
appear alike indifferent as to what " Book ; " 
but all but one have been women ; the men 
.are generally perfectly rational about medicine 
and diet. 

To-day a man brought a deaf and blind 
boy ; poor fellow, he was rapidly losing speech 
also, and memory as well it seemed. He used 
to know the Koran by heart before the illness 
which destroyed sight and hearing ; but now 
he will not speak unless he is forced. He 
felt my hand with great attention, and at last 



THEBES. 33 

smelt it, and put it to his face several times. 
I wonder what difference he perceived ! I 
remarked that he was far cleaner and better 
dressed than other children ; and was touched 
to see how tenderly his uncle led him, and 
wrapped a cloak round him, and how the 
boy clung to the man, and rubbed his face 
against him with a fondling air. It is curious 
how kind these people are to anyone idiotic 
or utterly helpless like that boy. One would 
not expect it where life is of such small value 
or certainty. 

The Patriarch has sent us a coadjutor in 
place of our Bishop, who has been imbecile 
these two years. Sheykh Yussuf told me the 
news to-day, and intimated that I ought to 
call on him, on the same principle that he 
always looks me up, and sends me to church, 
whenever there is English service here, 

I find there is a good deal of discontent 
among the Copts with regard to their priests 
and many of their old customs. Several young 
men have let out to me at a great rate about 
the folly of their fasts, and the badness and 
ignorance of their priests. I believe many 
turn Muslim from a real conviction that it 
is a better religion than their own, and not 
as I at first thought merely from interest ; 
indeed, they seldom gain much by it, and 

D 



34 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

often suffer tremendous persecution from their 
families ; even they do not escape the rational- 
izing tendencies now abroad in Christendom. 
Then their early and indissoluble marriages 
are felt to be a hardship : a boy is married 
at eight years old, perhaps to his cousin 
aged seventeen (I know one here in that case), 
and when he grows up he wishes it had been 
left alone. A clever lad of seventeen pro- 
pounded to me his dissatisfaction, and seemed 
to lean to Islam. I gave him an Arabic New 
Testament, and told him to read that first, and 
judge for himself whether he could not still 
conform to the Church of his own people, and 
inwardly believe and try to follow the Gospels, 
I told him it was what most Christians had 
to do, as every man could not make a sect 
for himself, while few could believe every- 
thing in any Church. I suppose I ought to 
have offered him the Thirty-nine Articles, 
and thus have made a Muslim of him out 
of hand. He pushed me a little hard about 
several matters, which he says he does not 
find in " the Book;" but on the whole he 
is well satisfied with my advice. 

I shall wait to get a woman-servant till 
I go to Cairo, the women here cannot iron 
or sew ; so, meanwhile, the wife of Abd el 
Kader, the cook, does my washing, and Omar 



THEBES. 35 

irons ; and we get on capitally. Little Achmet 
waits, &c, and I think I am more comfortable 
so, than if I had a maid, — it would be no use 
to get a slave, as the trouble of teaching her 
would be greater than the work she would 
do for me. 

My medical reputation has become far too 
great, and all my common drugs — Epsom 
salts, senna, aloes, rhubarb, quassia — run short. 
Especially do all the poor, tiresome, ugly old 
women adore me, and bore me with their 
aches and pains. They are always the doctor s 
greatest plague. The mark of confidence is 
that they now bring the sick children, which 
was never known before, I believe, in these 
parts. I am sure it would answer for a 
European doctor to set up here ; the people 
could pay him a little, and there would be 
good profit from the boats in the winter. I 
got turkeys when they were worth six or 
seven shillings apiece in the market, and 
they were forced upon me by the Fellaheen. 



D 2 



3<5 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



Bairam, Aprils 1866. 
Mr. Palgrave is here, and very amusing 
of course. He has been conducting an in- 
quiry into some Consular business. His know- 
ledge of languages is wonderful ; — Sheykh 
Yussuf says few Ulema know as much of the 
literature and niceties of grammar and com- 
position. 

I have not yet got a woman-servant, but I 
have kept on the meek cook, Abd el Kader, 
whom I took when my French friend was here. 
I had not the heart to send him away ; he is 
such a meskeen (poor fellow). He was a smart 
travelling waiter, but his brother died, leaving 
a termagant widow 7 with four children, and 
poor Abd el Kader felt it his duty to bend his 
neck to the yoke, married her, and has two 
more children. He is a most worthy, sickly, 
terrified creature. 

I went out this morning to the early prayer 
of Bairam day, held in the burial-place. 
Mahmood ibn Mustafa preached, but the boys 
and the hareem made such a noise that I could 
not hear the sermon. The weather has set in 
hot these last four days, and I am much the 
better. It seems so strange that what makes 
others languid seems to strengthen me. I 
have been weak and languid all the time, but 
the camel's milk has fattened me prodigiously, 



B AIR AM. 37 

to Sheriffs great delight ; and the last hot 
days have begun to take away the miserable 
feeling of fatigue and languor. 

Several people in the steamer are ill, but in 
Luxor there is no illness to speak of, only 
chronic old women, so old and ugly and achy, 
that I don't know what to do with them, except 
to listen to their complaints, which begin, " Ya 
ragleh." Ragelis man, so ragleh is the old German 
Mannin, and is the civil way of addressing a 
Sacedee woman. To one old body I gave a 
powder, wrapped in a fragment of a Saturday 
Review, She came again and declared Mas- 
shallah ! the hegab (charm) was a powerful one, 
for though she had not been able to wash off 
all the fine writing from the paper, even that 
little had done her a deal of good. I regret that 
I am not able to inform you what was the 
subject of the article in the Saturday which 
had so drastic an effect. 

I must go and take a sleep before the time 
of receiving the visits of to-day (the great 
festival). I was up before sunrise to see the 
prayer, so must have siesta in a cool place. 



3S 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



Thebes, lotk May f 1866. 

The real summer heat — the Shems al Kebeer 
(big sun) has fairly set in, and of course I am 
all the better. You would give my camel a 
good backsheesh if you saw how prodigiously 
fat I have grown on her milk : it beats cod- 
liver-oil hollow. You can drink a gallon with- 
out feeling it, so easy is it of digestion. 

I have lent the Dahabieh to Mustafa, to 
go down to Keneh on business, and when she 
returns I shall make ready to depart too, and 
drop down stream. Omar wants me to go 
down to Damietta now, to " amuse my mind 
and dilate my stomach " a little ; and I think 
of doing so. Palgrave was here about a fort- 
night ago, on some business. " By Allah, this 
English way is wonderful," said a witness. 
" That English Bey questioned me till my 
stomach came out." 

I liked Mustafa Bey, who was with him ; 
such a nice, kind, gentle creature, and very 
intelligent and full of good sense. I rejoice 
to find that he returns my liking, and has 
declared himself " one of my darweeshes." 
Talking of darweeshes reminds me of the 
Festival of Sheykh Gulnul this year. I had 
forgotten the day, but in the evening some 
people came for me to go and eat some of the 
meat of the Sheykh, who is also a good patron 



THEBES, 39 

of mine, they say ; being a poor man's saint, 
and of a humble spirit, it is said, he favours 
me. There was plenty of meat and melockeeci 
and bread ; and then zikrs of different kinds, 
and a Gama el Fokara (assembly of the 
poor). Gama is the true word for Mosque — - 
i.e., Meeting, which consists in a great circle 
of men seated thick on the ground, with two 
poets facing each other, who improvise religious 
verses. On this occasion the rule of the game 
was to end each stanza with a word having- the 
sound of waked (one), or el Had (the first). 
Thus one sang : " Let a man take heed how 
he walks/' &c., &c. ; and "pray to God not 
to let him fall," which sounds like Had, 
And so they went on, each chanting a verse 
alternately. One gesticulated almost as much 
as an Italian and pronounced beautifully ; the 
other was quiet, but had a nice voice, and 
altogether it was very pretty « At the end of 
each verse the people made a sort of chorus, 
which was sadly like the braying of asses. 
The zikr of the Edfoo men was very curious. 
Our people did it quietly, and the "moonsheed" 
sang very sweetly — indeed " the song of the 
'moonsheed' is the sugar in the sherbet to the 
* Zikkeer/ " said a man who came up when it was 
over, streaming with perspiration and radiant 
with smiles. Some day I will write to you 



4Q LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 

the whole " grund Idee " of a Zikr, which is, 
in fact, an attempt to make present " the com- 
munion of saints/' dead or living. As I write 
arrives my Dahabieh, and her crew furl her 
big sail quite " Bristol fashion." My men have 
come together ao-ain, some from Nubia and 
some from the Delta ; and I shall go down 
with mv old lot. 

Omar and Achmet have implored me not 
to take another maid at all ; they say they live 
like Pashas now they have only the lady to 
please ; that it will be a pleasure " to lick my 
shoes clean," whereas the boots of the " Came- 
riera " were intolerable. The feeling of the 
Arab servants towards European colleagues is 
a little like that of " niggers " about " mean 
whites " — mixed hatred, fear, and scorn. The 
two have done so well to make me comfortable 
that I have no possible reason for insisting on 
encumbering myself with " an old man of the 
sea," in the shape of a maid ; and the difference 
in cost is immense. The one dish of my 
dinner is ample relish to their bread and beans, 
while the cooking for a maid, and her beer 
and wine, cost a great deal. Omar irons my 
clothes very tidily, and little Achmet cleans 
the house as nicely as possible. I own I am 
quite as much relieved by the absence of the 
" civilised element" as my retainers are. 



THEBES. 4 r 

Did I describe the Coptic Good Friday ? 
Imagine 450 Rekahs in church ! I have seen 
many queer things, but nothing half so queer 
as the bobbing of the Copts. 

I went the other day to the old church six 
or eight miles off, where they buried the poor 
old Bishop who died a week ago. " Abu 
Khom," a Christian shaheed (martyr), is buried 
there. He appeared to Mustafa's father when 
lost in the desert, and took him safe home. 
On that occasion he was well mounted, and 
robed all in white, with a litham over his face. 
No one dares to steal anything near his tomb, 
not one ear of corn. He revealed himself 
long ago to one of the descendants of Abu 
el Haggag, and to this day every Copt who 
marries in Luxor gives a pair of fowls to 
the family of that Muslim in remembrance 
of " Abu Khom." 

I don't know what to do with my sick : they 
come from forty miles off, and sometimes 
twenty or thirty sleep outside the house. I 
dined with the Maohn last night— " pot luck" — 
and was much pleased. The dear old lady 
was so much vexed not to have a better dinner 
for me that she sent me a splendid tray of 
baklaweh this morning to make up for it. 



4^ 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



Off Boulak, Cairo, 22nd June. 
I send you a Roman coin which a man gave 
me as a fee for medical attendance. I hope 
you will like it for your watch-chain. I made 
our Coptic goldsmith bore a hole in it. I am 
now living in my boat, and often wish for you 
to donkey ride about with me. We had a 
hurricane coming down the Nile, and a boat 
behind us sank. We only lost an anchor, and 
had to wait and have it fished up by the 
fishermen of a neighbouring village. In places 
the water was so shallow that the men had to 
push the boats over by main force, and all went 
into the river. The captain and I shouted out, 
" Islam el Islam," equivalent to, " Heave away, 
boys." There are splendid illuminations about 
to take place here, because the Pasha has got 
leave to make his son his successor, and people 
are ordered to rejoice, which they do with 
much grumbling. 

Off Boulak, July, 1866. 
I have got a very fine lion's head of granite, 
which I will send to Alexandria in a cargo boat; 
whenever there is a chance, you can have it over. 
I have also a lovely broken face, but I can't 
part with it, I love it so ; likewise a little god, 
in black touch-stone, and some very good 



OFF BOULAK. 43 

scarabaei, and things, all presents from my 
patients at Luxor. 

Achmet is very good and useful, and Omar 
lets me want nothing. I am perfectly com- 
fortable now with my aquatic menage. The 
Reis is very well behaved, and steady, and 
careful, and the sort of Caliban of a sailor is 
a very worthy savage. Omar is hard-worked 
— what with going to market, cooking, cleaning, 
ironing, and generally keeping everything in 
nice order ; but he won't hear of a maid. 

A clever old Reis has just come and over- 
hauled the bottom of the boat, and says he 
can mend her without taking her out. We 
shall see ; it will be great luck if he can. As 
I am the river doctor, all the sailoring men 
are glad to do me a civility. I have had to 
be very obdurate in order to get into practice 
among the river-side population here. 

We have the hottest of summers ; it is now 
98 in the cabin. I have felt very unwell 
and above all horribly nervous and depressed, 
but my blue devils are quite gone, and I am 
altogether better. 

What a miserable war it is in Germany ! I 
am most anxious for the next papers. Here 
it is money misery. The Pasha is something 
like bankrupt, and no one has had a day s pay 
these three months ; even pensions of sixty 



44 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 



piastres a month (seven shillings) to poor 
old female slaves of Mahommed Ali's are 
stopped. 

I wish I had the children here to play with 
my black lamb and my white kitten, Ablook 
and Biss. Pussy uses the lamb as her bed 
every night, and all day they play together. 

Five dead bodies floated past while we 
w r ere lying out in the river at Ramleh — an 
Egyptian man and woman tied together among 
the number. The Greeks and the Maltese 
slaughter each other with perfect impunity. 

Off Boulak, \oth July, 1866. 

I have been shamefully lazy of late : what 
with feeling very unwell and w T hat with finding 
such an alarming state of things . . . No one 
in Egypt is paid now ; all pensions and salaries 
are three months in arrear ; the soldiers and 
workmen unpaid; forced loans; — in short, 
universal ruin and distress. 

Mr. Palgrave has left Egypt, and I am to 
inherit his little black servant, Mabrook, whom 
he left ill at Luxor, in Mustafa's house. I have 
sent for him. 

I am much better again, only weak and 
nervous. I am very comfortable here, anchored 
off Boulak, with my Reis and one sailor. A 
bad hashash, or opium-eating boy, turned 



OFF BOULAK. 45 

Achmet's head, who ran away for two days 
and spent a dollar in riotous living ; he returned 
penitent, and got no fatted calf, but dry bread 
and a confiscation of his new clothes. 

The heat, when I left Luxor, was prodigious. 
I was detained three days by the death of 
Sheykh Yussufs poor little wife and baby 
(in childbirth), so I was forced to stay and 
eat the funeral feast, and be present at the 
Khatmeh (reading of the Koran on the third 
night), or it would not have seemed kind. 
The Cadi gave me a very curious prayer-book, 
the Guide of the Faithful, written in Darfour ! 
in beautiful characters, and with very singular 
decorations, and in splendid binding. It con- 
tains the names of all the prophets and of the 
hundred appellations of Mohammed, and is 
therefore a powerful Hegab or talisman. He re- 
quested me to keep it with me. Such books 
cannot be bought with money at all I also 
bought a most beautiful Hegab of cornelian set 
in enamel, the verse of the Koran splendidly 
engraved, and dated 250 years ago. 

It was so hot that I could not face the ride 
up to Keneh, when all my friends there came 
to fetch me, nor could I go to Sioot. I never 
felt such heat. At Benisouef I went to see 
our Maohn's daughter married to another 
Maohn there : it was a pleasant visit. The 



46 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 

master of the house was out, and his mother 
and wife received me like one of the family ; 
such a pretty woman and such darling children! 
— a pale, little slight girl of five, a sturdy boy 
of four, and a baby boy of one year old. The 
eager hospitality of the little creatures was 
quite touching. The little girl asked to have 
her best frock, and then she stood before me 
seriously and diligently, and asked every now 
and then, " Shall I make thee a sherbet?" 
" Shall I bring- thee a coffee ? " And then 
questions about grandpapa and grandmamma, 
and Abd el Hameed and Abd el Fettah ; while 
the boy sat on his heels before me and asked 
questions about my family in his baby talk, 
and assured me it was a good day to him, 
and wanted me to stay three days, and to 
sleep with them. Their father came in and 
gave each a small coin, which, after consulting 
together, they tied in the corner of my hand- 
kerchief, " to spend on my journey/' The 
little girl took such care of my hat and gloves 
and shoes, all very strange garments to her, 
but politeness was stronger than curiosity with 
the little things. I breakfasted with them all 
next day, and found much cookery going on 
for me. I took a doll for my little friend 
Ayoosheh, and some sugar-plums for Moham- 
med, but they laid them aside in order to 



OFF BOULAK. 47 

devote themselves to the stranger, and all 
quietly, and with no sort of show-off or ob- 
trusiveness. Even the baby seemed to have 
the instinct of hospitality, and was full of 
smiles. It was all of a piece with the good 
old lady their grandmother, at Luxor, who 
wanted to wash my clothes for me herself, 
because I said the black slave of Mohammed 
washed badly. Remember that to do " menial 
offices " for a guest is an honour and pleasure, 
and not derogatory at all here. The ladies 
cook for you, and say, " I will cook my best 
for thee." The worst is that they stuff 
one so. Little Ayoosheh asked after my 
children, and said, " May God preserve them 
for thee ! Tell thy little girl that Mohammed 
and I love her from afar off." Whereupon 
Mohammed declared that in a few years, please 
God, when he should be da/a/ (marriageable) 
he would marry her and live with me. When 
I went back to the boat the Effendi was ill 
with asthma, and I would not let him go with 
me in the heat (a polite man accompanies an 
honoured guest back to his house, or boat, or 
tent). So the little boy volunteered, and we 
rode off on the Effendi's donkey, which I 
had to bestride, with Mohammed on the 
hump of the saddle before me. He was de- 
lighted with the boat, of course, and romped 



48 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

and played about until we sailed, when his 
slave took him home. Those children gave 
me quite a happy day with their earnest, 
gracious hospitality. 

Off Boulak, \^th Jtily, 1866. 
Since I wrote, I have had the boat topsy- 
turvy, with a carpenter and a menegget (cushion- 
stuffer), and had not a corner even to write 
in. ... I am much better, and have got over 
the nervous depression which made me un- 
able or ashamed to write. My young carpenter 
— a Christian — half Syrian, half Copt, of the 
Greek rite, and altogether a Cairene — would 
have pleased you. He would not work on 
Sunday, but, instead, came mounted on a 
splendid tall black donkey, and handsomely 
dressed, to pay me a visit, and go out with 
me for a ride. So he, I, and Omar went 
up to the Sittee (Lady) Zeyneb's mosque, to 
inquire for Mustafa Bey Soobky, the Hakeem 
Pasha, whom I had known at Luxor. I was 
told by the porter of the mosque to seek him 
at the shop of a certain grocer, his particular 
friend, where he sits every evening. On going 
there we found the shop with its lid shut down 
(a shop is like a box on its side, with the lid 
pulled up when open, and dropped when shut ; 
as big as a cobblers stall in Europe). The 



OFF BOULAK. 49 

young grocer was being married, and Mustafa 
Bey was ill. So I went to his house in the 
quarter {Hard) — such narrow streets ! — and 
was shown up by a young eunuch into the 
harem, and found my old friend very poorly, 
but spent a pleasant evening with him, his 
young wife — a Georgian slave whom he had 
married, — his daughter by a former wife, — 
whom he had married when he was fourteen, 
and the female dwarf buffoon of the Waddeh 
Bashe (Ismail Pashas mother), whose heart I 
won by rising to her, because she was so old 
and deformed. The other women laughed, but 
the little old dwarf liked it. She was a 
Circassian, and seemed clever. You see how 
the " Thousand and One Nights " are quite 
true and real ; how great Beys sit with grocers, 
and carpenters have no hesitation in offering 
a civility to naas omra (noble people). This 
is what makes Arab society quite unintelligible 
and impossible to most Europeans. 

My carpenter's boy was the son of a moo- 
sheed (singer in the mosque), and at night he 
used to sit and warble with his little baby- 
voice, and little round, innocent face, the most 
violent love-songs. He was about eight years 
old, and sang with wonderful finish and pre- 
cision, but no expression, until I asked him 
for a sacred song, which begins, " I cannot 

E 



50 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

sleep for longing for thee, Full Moon " (the 
Prophet), and then the little fellow warmed to 
his work, and the feeling came out. 

I told you that Palgrave has left in my 
charge a little black boy of his, now at Luxor, 
where he left him very ill, with Mustafa Agha. 
The child told me he was a " nyan-nyan " 
(cannibal), but he did not look ogreish. I have 
written to Mustafa to send him me by the first 
opportunity. Achmet has quite recovered his 
temper, and I do so much better without a 
maid that I shall remain so. The difference in 
expense is enormous, and the peace and quiet 
a still greater gain : no more grumbling and 
exigeances and worry : anyhow, I would rather 
wear a sack than try the experiment again. 
An uneducated European is too disturbing an 
element in the family life of Easterns : the 
sort of filial relation, at once familiar and 
reverential, of servants to a master they like, 
is odious to English and still more to French 
servants. If I fall in with an Arab or Abys- 
sinian woman to suit me I will take her ; but 
of course it is rare ; a raw girl can do nothing, 
nor can a Fellaha, and a Cairo woman is bored 
to death up in the Saeed. As to care and 
attention, I want for nothing, and the saving in 
wine, beer, meat, &c, is enormous ; one feeds 
six or eight Arabs well with the money for 
one European. 



OFF. BOULAK. 5I 

While the carpenter, his boy, and two cushion 
stuffers were here, a very moderate dish of 
vegetables, stewed with a pound of meat, w r as 
put before me, followed by a chicken or a 
pigeon for me alone. The stew was then set 
on the ground to all the men, with two loaves, of 
a piastre each, and to every one a jar of water ; 
and four men and two boys had dined hand- 
somely. At breakfast a water-melon and an- 
other loaf a-piece, and a cup of coffee all 
round ; and I pass for a true Arab in hospi- 
tality. Of course no European can live so, 
and they despise the Arabs for doing so, while 
the Arab servant is not flattered at seeing the 
European get all sorts of costly luxuries which 
he thinks unnecessary ; besides, he has to stand 
on the defensive, in order not to be made a 
drudge by his European fellow-servant, and 
despised for being one ; and so he leaves 
undone all sorts of things which he does with 
alacrity when it is for " the master " only. 

Off Boulak, i$thjuly, 1866, 
Last night came the two cushion-stuffers to 
pay a friendly visit, and sat and told stories ; 
so I ordered coffee. One of them told a 
fisherman, who stopped his boat alongside for 
a little conversation, the story of two fishermen, 

e 2 



52 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

the one a Jew, the other a Muslim, who were 
partners in the time of the Arab Prophet (upon 
whom be blessing and peace !) The Jew, when 
he flung his nets, called on the prophet of the 
Jews, and hauled it up full of fish every time ; 
then the Muslim called on our master Mo- 
hammed, &c, &c, and hauled up each time 
only stones, until the Jew said, " Depart, O 
man, thou bringest us misfortune ; shall I con- 
tinue to take half thy stones, and give thee 
half my fish ? Not so." So the Muslim went 
to our master Mohammed, and said, " Behold, 
I mention thy name when I cast my net, and 
I catch only stones and calamity. How is 
this ?" But the blessed Prophet said to him, 
" Because thy stomach is black inwardly, and 
thou thoughtest to sell thy fish at an unfair 
price, and to defraud thy partner and the people, 
while the Jew's heart was clean towards thee 
and the people, and therefore God listened to 
him rather than to thee." I hope the fisherman 
was edified by this fine moral. I also had 
good stories from the chief diver of Cairo, who 
came to examine the bottom of my boat, and 
told me, in a whisper, a long tale of his grand- 
fathers descent below the waters of the Nile, 
into the land of the people who live there, and 
keep tame crocodiles to hunt fish for them. 
They gave him a sleeve-full of fishes' scales, 



OFF BOULAK. 53 

and told him never to return, and not to tell 
about them ; and when he got home the scales 
had turned to money. But most wonderful of 
all was Haggi Hannah's story of her own life, 
and the journey of Omars mother carrying 
her old mother in a basket on her head from 
Damietta to Alexandria, and dragging Omar, 
then a very little boy, by the hand. The energy 
of many women here is amazing. 

The Nile is rising fast, and the " Bisheer " 
is come (the messenger who precedes the Hajj, 
and brings letters). " Bisheer n is " good- 
tidinger," to coin a word. Many hearts are 
lightened and many half-broken to-day. I 
shall go up to the Abassia to meet the Mahmal 
(holy carpet), and see the Hajjees arrive. 

Next Friday I must take my boat out of the 
water, or at least heel her over, to repair the 
bad places. It seems I once cured a Reis of 
the Pasha's of dysentery at Minieh, and he has 
not forgotten it, though I had : so I shall have 
a good place on the Nile bank. I shall move 
out all the things and myself into a boat of 
Zubeydeh's for four or five days, and stay 
alongside to superintend my caulkers. 

I want to read Bakers book very much. 
I am much pleased with Abd el Kader's book 
which Dozon sent me, and want the original 
dreadfully for Sheykh Yussuf, to show him that 



54 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

he and I are supported by such an authority 
as the great Ameer in our notions about the 
real unity of the Faith. The book is a curious 
mixture of good sense and credulity — quite 
u Arab of the Arabs." I will write a paper on 
the popular belief of Egypt : it will be curious, 
I think. By the way, I see in the papers and 
reviews speculations as to some imaginary 
Mohammedan conspiracy, because of the very 
great number of pilgrims last year from all 
parts to Mecca. Oest chercher midi a quatorze 
keures. Last year the day of Abraham's sac- 
rifice, — and therefore the day of the pilgrimage 
— (the sermon on Mount Arafat) fell on a 
Friday, and when that happens there is always 
a rush, owing to the popular notion that the 
" Hajj-el-Gumma" (pilgrimage of the Friday) 
is seven times blessed, or even equivalent to 
making it seven times in ordinary years. As 
any beggar in the street could tell a man this, 
it may give you some notion of how absurdly 
people make theories out of nothing for want 
of a little conversation. 

The " Moolid en Nebbee" (Festival of the 
Prophet) has just begun. I am to have a place 
in the great Derweesh's tent to see the 
" Doseh." 

The Nile is rising fast : we shall kill the 
poor little Luxor black lamb on the day of the 



OFF BOULAK. 55 

opening of the canal, and have a fantasia at 
night ; only I grieve for my little white pussy, 
who sleeps every night on Ablook's (the lamb's) 
woolly neck, and loves him dearly. Pussy 
(" Biss " is Arabic for puss) was the gift of a 
Coptic boy at Luxor, and is wondrous funny, 
and as much more active and lissom than an 
European cat as an Arab is than an English- 
man. She and Achmet and Ablook have fine 
games of romps. 

Here comes such a bouquet, a great rond 
of scarlet, surrounded with white and green 
and with tall reeds, on w r hich are threaded 
single tuberose flowers, rising out of it so as 
to figure a huge flower with white pistils. 
Arab gardeners beat French flower-girls in 
bouquets. 

I must finish this endless letter. I am much 
better. We have a broiling summer on the 
Nile. I could not think how my men could 
row. 

Off Boulak, \th August, 1866. 
The heat is something fearful : we are all 
fainting and puffing. I can't think what Pal- 
grave meant about my being tired of poor old 
Egypt. I am very happy and comfortable, 
only I have felt rather weak and poorly this 
year, and sometimes, I suppose, rather dis- 



56 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

heartened, and rather " wacham," as the Arabs 
say, after you and the children. The heat, 
too, has made me lazy — it is no in the cabin, 
and 96 at night. 

I saw the "Moolid en Nebbee" (Festival of 
the Prophet), and the wonderful "Doseh;" it 
is an awful sight ; so many men drunk with 
religious ardour. I also went into a Turkish 
harem, where my Derweesh friends sent me ; 
it is just like a tea party at Hampton Court, 
only handsomer, not as to the women, but the- 
clothes, furniture and jewels, and not a bit 
like the description in Mrs. Lott's most extra- 
ordinary book. But, oh, how dull and trite 
it all seemed ! One nice lady said to me, " If 
I had a husband and children like thee, I 
would die a hundred times rather than leave 
them for an hour ; " another envied me the 
power of going into the street and seeing the 
" Doseh/' She had never seen it, and never 
would. 

To-morrow a friend will dine and spend 
the night here, to see the cutting of the canal, 
and the " Bride of the Nile" on Monday morn- 
ing. We shall sail up to old Cairo in the 
evening with the Bride's boat; also Haggi 
Hannah is coming for the Fantasia ; after the 
high Nile we shall take the boat out and caulk 
her, and then, if the excessive heat continues, 



OFF BOULAK. 57 

I rather think of a month's jaunt to Beyroot. 
Hagg-Ali is there, with all his travelling ma- 
terials and tents, so I need only take Omar 
and a bath and carpet-bag. If the weather 
gets cool I shall stay in my boat. The heat 
is far more intense here than it was at Luxor 
two years ago ; it is not so dry. There is a 
great deal of diarrhoea about, and the Viceroy 
is afraid of cholera, so the poor Hajjees this 
year are put under rigorous quarantine regu- 
lations. The " Mahmal " was smuggled into 
Cairo before sunrise, without the usual honours, 
and all sightseers and holyday makers dis- 
appointed, and all good Muslims deeply 
offended. 

Off Boulak, 10th August, 1866. 
Since I last wrote I have had a bilious 
attack and congestion of the liver. Every- 
one has had the same, and most far more 
than I ; but I was very wretched and most 
shamefully cross. Omar said, " That is not 
you, but the sickness, that says that," when 
I found fault with everything, and it was 
very true. Also I am beyond measure ex- 
asperated about my boat. I went up to the 
"Ata el Khalig" (cutting of the canal), to see 
the great sight of the " Bride of the Nile/' 
a lovely spectacle ; and on returning we all 
but sank. I got out into a boat of Zubeydehs 



53 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



with all my goods ; and we hauled up my boat, 
and found her bottom rotten from stem to 
stern. So here I am in the midst of wood 
merchants, sawyers, &c, rebuilding her bottom. 
My Reis said, he had " carried her on his head 
all this time," but what could such a one as he 
say against the wood of a Hawagah. . . . 
Omar buys the wood and superintends, to- 
gether with the Reis ; and the builders seem 
very good workmen, and very fair-dealing. I 
pay day by day, and have a scribe to keep the 
accounts ; every atom has to be new. I never 
saw anything so rotten afloat. If I had gone 
up the cataract, I should never have come 
down alive. 

Palgrave's servant, Mabrook, has arrived, and 
turns out well. He is a stout lubberly boy, 
with infinite good-humour, and not at all 
stupid, and laughs a good real nigger guffaw, 
which brings the fresh breezes and lilac moun- 
tains of the Cape before me when I hear it. 
When I tell him to do anything he does it 
with strenuous care, and then asks "Tayib?" 
and if I say " Tayib" (well), he goes off, as 
Omar says, " like a cannon in ladyship's face," 
in a loud guffaw. Achmet, who is half his 
size, orders him about and teaches him, with 
an air of extreme dignity, and says pityingly 
to me, " You see, oh lady, he is quite new, 



OFF BOULAK. 59 

quite green." Achmet, who had never seen 
a garment or any article of European life two 
years ago, is now a smart " walet," with very 
distinct ideas of waiting at table, arranging my 
things, &c, and cooks quite cleverly. Arab 
boys are amazing ! I have promoted him to 
wages — one napoleon a month — so now he will 
keep his family. He is about a head taller 
than a child of eight. 

I intend to write a paper on the various 
festivals and customs of Copts and Muslims ; 
but I must wait to see Abu-Seyfegn, near 
Luxor, the great Christian Saint, where all go to 
be cured of possession — all mad people. The 
Viceroy wages steady war against all festivals 
and customs. The " Mahmal " was burked 
this year, and the fair at Tantah forbidden. 
Then the Europeans spoil all : the Arabs no 
longer go to the "Ata el Khalig," and at the 
" Doseh," the Frangee carriages were like 
the Derby-day. It is only up the country 
that the true thing remains. 

To-morrow my poor black sheep will be 
killed over the new prow of the boat ; his 
blood " straked " upon her, and his flesh 
" sodden " and eaten by all the workmen, to 
keep off the evil eye ; and on the day she 
goes into the water, some " Fikees " will read 
the Koran in the cabin, and again boiled 



60 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

mutton and bread. The Christian "Ma-alli- 
meen" (skilled workmen) hold to the cere- 
mony of the sheep quite as much as the others, 
and always do it over a new house, boat, mil], 
water-wheel, &c. 

Omars wife and babies are to come up from 
Alexandria to see him, for he will not leave 
me for a day on account of my being so ailing 
and weak. I cannot conceive what I should 
do without his faithful and loving care of me. 
He never goes out, except to market each 
morning ; and now and then to the boat, which 
lies by on the shore, and never seems to have a 
thought but for my comfort or advantage. . . . 
How pleasant it would be if you could come — 
if you do not come I go to Luxor early in 
October. I hear from up the country that 
the people are running away from the land, 
unable to pay triple taxes, and eat bread : the 
ruin is universal. . . . 

I have not been out for an age, or seen any- 
one. Would you know the wife of your bosom 
in a pair of pink trousers and a Turkish Tob? 
Such is my costume as I write. The woman 
who came to sew could not make a gown, so 
she made me a pair of trousers instead. Fare- 
well ! I dare hardly say how your hint of 
possibly coming has made me wish it, and yet 
I dread to persuade you. 



OFF BOULAK. 



6 1 



The great heat is quite over with the high 
Nile, and the air on the river fresh and cool — 
cold at night even. 

Off Boulak, 7.7 th August, 1866. 
The last two or three days we have been 
in great tribulation about the boat. On Satur- 
day all her ribs were finished, and the plank- 
ing and caulking ready to put on, when in the 
night up came the old Nile with a rush, and 
threatened to carry her off; but by the favour 
of Abu el Haggag and Sheykh el Bostawee 
she was saved. You remember the tall steers- 
man who went with us to Bedreeshayn, and 
whom we thought so ill-conditioned ; well, he 
was in charge of a dahabieh close by, and 
he called up all the Reises and steersmen to 
help. " O men of El Bostawee, this is our 
boat" (that is, we are the servants of her 
owner), " and she is in our faces ; " and then 
he set the example, stripped, and carried dust 
and hammered in piles all night, and by morn- 
ing she was surrounded by a dyke breast-high. 
The " long-shore" men of Boulak were not a 
little surprised to see dignified Reises working 
for nothing like Fellaheen. Meanwhile my 
three Ma-allimeen, the chief builder, caulker, 
and foreman, had also stayed all night with 
Omar and my Reis, who worked like the rest, 



62 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



and the Sheykh of all the boat-builders went 
to visit one of my Ma'allims, who is his nephew, 
and hearing the case, came down too at one in 
the morning and stayed till dawn. Then, as the 
workmen passed, going to their respective jobs, 
he called them, and said, " Come and finish this 
boat; it must be done by to-morrow night." 
Some men who objected, and said they were 
going to various places, got a beating pro forma, 
and the end of it w T as, that I found forty-six 
men under my boat working " like Afreets and 
Shaitans," when I went to see how all was 
going on in the morning. The old Sheykh 
marked a piece to each four men, and then 
said, " If that is not done to-night, O dogs ! 
to-morrow I'll put on the hat" — that is, being 
interpreted, " To-day I have beaten moderately, 
like an Arab, but to-morrow, please God, Til 
beat like a Frank, and be mad with the stick." 
In short, the boat which yesterday morning 
was a skeleton, is now, at 4 p.m. to-day, 
finished, caulked, pitched, and all capitally 
done ; so, if the Nile carries off the dyke, she 
will float safe. The shore is covered with 
debris of other people's half-finished boats. 
I believe I owe the ardour of the Ma'allims 
and the Sheykh of the builders to one 
of my absurd pieces of Arab civility. On 
the day when Omar killed poor Ablook 



OFF BOULAK. 63 

my black sheep, over the bows, and " straked 
his blood" upon them, the three Ma-allimeen 
came on board this boat to eat their dish, and 
I followed the old Arab fashion and ate out of 
the wooden dish with them and the Reis " for 
luck/' or rather " for a blessing," as we say 
here ; and it seems that this gave immense 
satisfaction. 

My Reis wept at the death of the poor 
sheep, who used to follow him to the coffee- 
shop and the market, and " was to him as a 
son," he said, but he ate of him, nevertheless. 
Omar surreptitiously picked out the best pieces 
for my dinner for three days, with his usual 
eye to economy ; then lighted a fire of old 
wood, borrowed a cauldron of some Derweeshes, 
cut up the sheep, added water and salt, onions 
and herbs, and boiled the sheep. Then the 
big washing copper (a large flat round tray, like 
a sponging-bath) was filled with bread broken 
in pieces, over which the broth was slowly 
poured, till the bread was soaked. Next came 
a layer of boiled rice ; on the top of that the 
pieces of boiled meat ; over all was poured 
butter, vinegar, and garlic boiled together. 
This is called a " Fettah," and is the orthodox 
dish of Derweeshes and other semi-religious, 
semi-festive, semi-charitable festivities. It is 
excellent, and not expensive. I asked how 



64 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

many had eaten, and was told 130 men had 
" blessed my hand/' I expended 160 piastres 
on bread, butter, vinegar, &c. ; the sheep was 
worth two napoleons — three napoleons in all, 
or less, for I ate for two days of the mutton. 

The three " Ma alims " came on board this 
boat, and ate ; and it was fine to hear us — how 
polite we were. " A bit more, oh Ma'alim ? " 
" Praise be to God, we have eaten well — we 
will return to our work ;" " By the Prophet, 
coffee and a pipe!" "Truly thou art of the 
most noble people." " Oh, Ma'alim, ye have 
honoured us and rejoiced us ;" " Verily this is 
a day white among days," &c. 

A very clever Egyptian engineer, a pupil of 
Whitworth's, who is living in a boat alongside 
mine, was much amused, and said, " Ah, you 
know how to manage them." 

I have just heard that my boxes have ar- 
rived, and are in quarantine. Yesterday the 
Pasha had up several trucks full of newly- 
landed goods for his harem, and after they 
were unloaded, the men were sent off to do 
quarantine at Suez. Is not that characteristic ? 

I have learnt the story of the two dead 
bodies that hitched in my anchor-chain. They 
were not Europeans, but Circassians — a young 
man and his mother. The mother used to 
take him to visit an officers wife, who had 



OFF BOULAK. 65 

been brought up in the harem of the Pasha's 
mother. The husband caught them, killed 
them, tied them together and flung them into 
the Nile, near Rhoda, and gave himself into 
the hands of the police. All was of course 
hushed up. He goes to Fazoghlu ; and I don't 
know what becomes of the slave-girl, his wife. 
These sort of things happen every day (as the 
bodies testify) among the Turks ; but the 
Europeans never hear it. I heard it by a 
curious chance. 

I never saw men do a better day's work 
than those at the boat. It is pretty to see 
the carpenter holding the wood with one hand 
►and one foot while he saws it, sitting on the 
ground — just like the old frescoes. Do you 
remember the picture of boat-building in the 
tomb at Sakkara ? Well, it is just the same ; 
all done with the adze ; but it is stout work 
they put into it I can tell you. 

I have a neighbour now, one Goodah Effendi, 
an engineer, who studied and married in Eng- 
land. His wife is gone there with the children, 
and he is living in Haref Effendi's boat ; so 
he comes over in the evening very often ; and 
I am glad of his company : he is a right good 
fellow, and very intelligent. 

My love to all at home. I have got a 
wonderful waist clasp for A — — , whenever I 

F 



66 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

have a chance to send it ; brought from Jeru- 
salem ; also a log of the cedars of Lebanon. 
My Moslem carpenter who smoothed the bro- 
ken end, swallowed the sawdust, because he 
believed "our Lady Mary" had sat under the 
tree with "our Lord Jesus." 

Off Boulak, 21st Sept., 1866. 
Omar is from dawn till night at work in 
my boat, overlooking the work and the wood, 
nails, hemp, &c, which the careless Arabs 
would waste. So I have only Mabrook and 
Achmet, and you would wonder to see how 
well I am served. Achmet cooks a very good 
dinner, serves it, and orders Mabrook about. 
Sometimes I whistle and hear " Hader" from 
the water, and in tumbles Achmet, with the 
water running " down his innocent nose," and 
looking just like a little bronze triton off a 
renaissance fountain, with a blue shirt and 
white skull-cap added. Mabrook is a big 
lubberly negro lad of the laugh-and-grow-fat 
breed, — clumsy, but not stupid, and very good 
and docile. He is a most worthy savage, the 
very picture of good nature. If he is of a 
cannibal tribe, his people must eat men from 
a perverted feeling of philanthropy. But his 
ugliness is more than can be told. Evidently 
his father was an Afreet. You would delight 



OFF BOULAK. 67 

in his guffaws, and the merry laughter of my 
menage is very pleasant to me. Another boy 
swims on board from Goodah's boat (his 
Achmet), and then there are games at piracy, 
and much stealing of red pots from the potters 
boats. The joke is to snatch one under the 
owners very nose, and swim off brandishing it, 
whereupon the boatman uses eloquent language, 
and the boys out-hector him, and everyone is 
much amused. I only hope that Palgrave 
wont come back from Sookum Kaleh to fetch 
Mabrook just as he has got clever — not at 
stealing jars, but in his work. He already 
washes my clothes very nicely indeed ; his 
stout black arms are made for a washerboy. 
Achmet looked forward to your coming with 
great eagerness. He is mad to go to England, 
and in his heart planned to ingratiate himself 
with you, and go as a " general servant." He 
is very little, if at all, bigger than a child of 
eight, but an Arab boy ne doute de rien, and 
does serve admirably. What would an English 
respectable cook say to seeing " two dishes and 
a sweet" cooked over a little old wood on a 
few bricks, by a baby in a single blue shirt ? — 
and very well cooked too, and followed by 
incomparable coffee. 

The carpenter will finish in the boat to-day, 
then the painter begins, and in a week I shall 

F 2 



68 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



be in my own boat again. I am in one of poor 
Zubeydeh's, which is not comfortable. 

Off Boulak, 21st Sept, 1866. 
I am a good deal better again ; the weather 
is delightful, and the Nile at full flood, which 
makes the river scenery from the boat very 
beautiful. 

I have seen nothing and nobody but my 
" next boat" neighbour, Goodah Effendi (an 
Arab-English engineer on the railway, a very 
clever fellow), as Omar has been at work all 
the day in the boat, and I felt lazy and dis- 
inclined to go out alone. Big Hassan of the 
donkeys has grown too lazy to go about, and I 
don't care to go with a small boy here. How- 
ever, I am out in the best of air all day, and 
am very well off. My two little boys are very 
diverting. Achmet's cookery is wonderful. 
Mabrook is the jolliest of fat, rollicking, good- 
humoured blacks, very awkward, but not at all 
stupid, and a very good boy. 

The news from Europe is to my ignorant 
ideas desolant, a degringolade back into military 
despotism, which would have excited indig- 
nation with us in our fathers' days. I get 
plenty of newspapers, which afterwards go to 
an Arab grocer, who reads the Times and the 
Saturday Review in his shop in the bazaar — 



OFF BOULAK. . 69 

what next ? The cargo of books which you 
sent will be most acceptable for winter con- 
sumption ; and I will soon begin to write down 
my superstitious lore, and send it to you to lick 
into shape. 

If I were a painter I would take up the 
Moslem traditions of Joseph and Mary. He 
was not a white-bearded old gentleman at all, 
you must know, but young, lovely, and pure 
as our Lady herself. They were cousins, 
brought up together, and she avoided the light 
conversation of other girls, and used to go 
to the well with her jar, hand in hand with 
Joseph, carrying his. After the angel Gabriel 
had announced to her the will of God, and 
blown into her sleeve, whereby she conceived 
"the Spirit of God," Joseph saw her state with 
dismay, and resolved to kill her, as was his 
duty, as her nearest male relation. He followed 
her, knife in hand, meaning always to kill her 
at the next tree, and each time his heart failed 
him, until they reached the well and the tree 
under which the Divine messenger stood once 
more, and said, " Fear not, oh Joseph, the 
daughter of thy uncle bears within her Issa, 
the Messiah, the Spirit of God." Joseph 
married his cousin without fear. Is it not 
pretty ? the two types of youthful purity stand- 
ing hand in hand before the angel. I think a 



70 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

painter might make something out of the soft- 
eyed Syrian boy with his jar on his shoulder 
(hers on the head), and the grave, modest 
maiden, who shrank from all profane company. 

I now know all about Sheykh Saleem, and 
why he sits naked ; from high authority (a great 
Sheykh to whom it has been revealed). He 
was entrusted with the care of some of the holy 
she camels, like that on which the prophet 
rode to Jerusalem in one night, and which are 
invisible to all but the elect {welees), and he 
lost one, and now he is God's prisoner till she 
is found. 

A letter from home all about little R 's 

country life, school feasts, &c, made me quite 
cry, and brought before me — oh, how vividly 
— the difference between East and West, not 
quite all to the advantage of home however, 
though mostly. What is pleasant here are the 
primitive ways. Three times since I have 
been here lads of most respectable families at 
Luxor have come to ask hospitality, which 
consists in a place on the deck of the boat, 
and liberty to dip their bread in the common 
dish with my black boy and Achmet. The 
bread they brought with them, " bread and 
shelter" were not asked, as they slept sub 
dio. In England I must have refused the 
hospitality, on account of gene and expense. 



OFF BOULAK. 71 

The chief object to the lads was the respect- 
ability of being under my eye while away from 
their fathers, as a satisfaction to their families; 
and while they ate and slept like beggars, as we 
should say, they read their books and chatted 
with me when I was out on the deck on 
perfectly equal terms, only paying the respect 
proper to my age. I thought of the " orphan- 
ages and institutions " and all the countless 
difficulties of that sort, and wondered whether 
something was not to be said for this absence of 
civilisation in knives, and first and second tables 
above all. Of course, climate has a good deal 
to do with it, as well as the facility with which 
widows and orphans are absorbed here. 

Off Boulak, \$th October, 1866. 

I have been back in my own boat four days, 
and most comfortable she is. I enlarged the 
saloon, and made a good writing table, and low 
easy divans instead of benches, and added a 
sort of pantry and sleeping cabin in front; so 
that no one has to come through the saloon 
to sleep ; and I have all the harem part to 
myself. Inside, there is a good large stern 
cabin, with beds airy enough even for you. I 
intend to sail up the Nile in ten days. 

We had a very narrow escape of being 
flooded this year. I fear a good deal of damage 



72 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

has been done to the dourra and cotton crops. 
It was sad to see the villagers close by here 
trying to pull up a little green dourra as the 
Nile slowly swallowed up the fields. 

I was forced to flog Mabrook yesterday for 
smoking on the sly, a grave offence here on the 
part of a boy ; it is considered disrespectful ; 
so he was ordered, with much parade, to lie 
down, and Omar gave him two cuts with a 
rope's end, an apology for a flogging which 
would have made an Eton boy stare. The 
stick here is quite nominal, except in official 
hands. I can't say Mabrook seemed at all 
impressed, for he was laughing heartily with 
Omar in less than ten minutes ; but the affair 
was conducted with as much solemnity as an 
execution. 

Sheykh Stanley's friend, Chizawee, has married 
his negro slave to his own sister, on the plea 
that he was the best young man he knew- 
What would a Christian family say to such 
an arrangement ? 

As soon as I can I shall go up to Luxor; 
my Reis is very eager to let the boat and make 
her earn some money. He is a very honest 
fellow, though cross-tempered, but very hard- 
working and neat. Le defaut de ses qualites 
is his temper. He went to Alexandria to 
divorce his wife there, and found her with child, 



OFF BOULAK. 73 

so there was an end of the divorce ; with us it 
would be raison de plus. But my worthy Reis 
is apparently not given to making calculations, 
and was mightily attentive to her when she 
came here to visit him for a few r days. 

My boat is beautifully buoyant now, and has 
come up by the bows in fine style. I have not 
sailed her yet, but have no doubt she will " walk 
well/' as the Arabs say. We had a mighty 
narrow escape of sinking, the night of the 
cutting of the canal, in which case we must all 
have been drowned like rats in a cistern between 
the high-walled banks. The rebuilding, caulk- 
ing, pitching, adding to cabin, painting and new 
awning, and upper deck, have cost 260/., and 
Omar got back 10/. by the sale of old wood 
and nails. He also gave me 2,000 piastres, 
nearly 12/., which the workmen had given him 
as a sort of backsheesh. They all pay one, 
two, or three piastres daily to any " wakeel " 
(agent) who superintends ; that is his profit, 
and it is enormous at that rate. I said, " Why 
did not you refuse it ? " But Omar said they 
had pay enough after that deduction, which is 
always made from them, and that in his opinion 
therefore, it came out of the master's pocket, 
and was "cheatery." He has every reason, 
to be proud of his performances, for the boat 
is as good as new, and everything well done, 



74 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

except the outside paint, in which he was 
cheated ; but that is a very small affair. I have 
accordingly paid his wife's and children's rail- 
way fare to and from Alexandria, and told him 
to take a little meat and sinnet from here to Ali's 
house (at my expense), as is usual for visitors 
to do where the hosts are not rich. 

I am interested in all the talk about Jamaica, 
and Sir Samuel Baker's blacks like tigers — and 
whites too, for the matter of that. I myself 
have seen at least five sorts of blacks (negroes) 
not Arabs, more unlike each other than Swedes 
are unlike Spaniards ; and many are just like 
ourselves. Of course they want governing with 
a strong hand, like all ignorant, childish crea- 
tures. But I am fully convinced that custom 
and education are the only real difference be- 
tween one set of men and another ; their nature 
is the same all the world over. 

My Reis spoke such a pretty parable the 
other day that I must needs write it. A Coptic 
Reis stole some of my wood, which we got 
back by force, and there was some reviling of 
the Nazarenes in consequence from Hosein and 
Ali ; but Reis Mohammed said : " Not so ; 
Girgis is a thief, it is true, but many Christians 
are honest ; and behold, all the people in the 
w r orld are like soldiers, some wear red and some 
blue ; some serve on foot, others on horseback, 



OFF BOULAK. 75 

and some in ships ; but all serve one Sultan, 
and each fights in the regiment in which the 
Sultan has placed him, and he who does his 
duty best is the best man, be his coat red or 
blue or black/' I said, " Excellent words, oh 
Reis, and fit to be spoken from the best of 
pulpits." It is surprising what happy sayings 
the people here hit upon ; they cultivate talk 
for want of reading, and the consequence is 
great facility of narration and illustration. 
Everybody enforces his ideas, like Christ, in 
parables. Haggi Hannah told me two ex- 
cellent fairy tales, which I will write for little 

R , and several laughable stories, which I 

will leave unrecorded, as savouring too much 
of Boccaccio's manner, or of that of Marguerite 
of Navarre. I told Achmet to sweep the 
floor after dinner just now. He hesitated, 
and I called again : " What manner is this, 
not to sweep when I bid thee ? " " By the 
most high God/' said the boy, " my hand 
shall not sweep in thy boat after sunset, oh 
lady ; I would rather have it cut off than sweep 
thee out of thy property." I found you must 
not sweep at night, nor for three days after the 
departure of a guest whose return you desire, 
or of the master of the house. " Thinkest thou 
my brother would sweep away the dust of thy 
feet from the floor of Luxor," continued Achmet; 



76 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

u he would fear never to see thy fortunate face 
again/' If you dorit want to see your visitors 
face again, you break a " gulleh " (water jar) 
behind him as he leaves the house, and sweep 
away his footsteps. 

I won't write any politics, it is all too dreary ; 
and Cairo gossip is odious, as you may judge 
by the productions of Mesdames Odouard 
and Lott. Only remember this, there is no law 
nor justice but the will, or rather the caprice of 
one man. It is nearly impossible for any Euro- 
pean to conceive such a state of things as it 
really is ; nothing but perfect familiarity with 
the governed, i.e., oppressed class will teach it. 
However intimate a man may be with the 
rulers he will never fully take it in. If the 
farce of a constitution ever should be acted 
here it will be superb. 

Off Boulak, igf/i Oct, 1866. 

I shall soon sail up the river. Yesterday 
Seyd Mustafa arrived, who says that the Greeks 
are all gone, and the poor Austrian at Thebes 
dead, so I shall represent Europe in my single 
person from Sioot to, I suppose, Khartoom. 

You would delight in Mabrook ; a man 
asked him the other day after his flogging, if 
he would not run away, to see what he would 
say, as he alleged. I suspect he meant to steal 



OFF BOULAK. 77 

and sell him. " I run away, to eat lentils like 
you ? when my effendi gives me meat and 
bread every day, and I eat such a lot." Is not 
that a delicious practical view of liberty ? The 
creature's enjoyment of life is quite a pleasure 
to witness, and he really works very well and 
with great alacrity, and is an inexhaustible 
source of amusement. 

I hear bad accounts from the Saeed : the 
new taxes and the new levies of soldiers are 
driving the people to despair, and many are 
running away from the land, which will no 
longer feed them after paying all exactions, to 
join the Bedaween in the desert, which is just 
as if our peasantry turned gipsies. 

Omars and Ali's wives, the two babies, and 
Ali's wife's sister came here yesterday. Ma- 
brookah, Omar's wife, is a very nice young 
woman, and the . babies very fine and pretty 
children, and sweet-tempered. Mabrookah told 
me that the lion's head which I sent down by 
Abu '1 Eymeen was in her room, when a 
neighbour of hers, who had never had a child, 
saw it, and at once conceived. The old image 
worship survives in the belief, which is all over 
Egypt, that the " Anteeks " (antiques) can cure 
barrenness. The women w r ere, of course, 
very smartly dressed, and the reckless way in 
which Eastern women treat their clothes gives 



78 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

them a grand air, which no Parisian duchess 
could ever hope to imitate, — not that I think 
it a virtue, mind you ; but some vices are 
genteel. 

I have got a photograph for you of a great 
singing woman of Damascus. I'll send it 
when I get a chance. Also a beautiful little 
sphinx, sitting up, and a god, and some 
Scarabaei ! Do you care for any ? The 
sphinx would make a lovely pin. 

Last night was a great Sheykh's fete, 
such drumming and singing, and ferrying 
across the river. The Nile is running down 
unusually fast, and I think I had better go 
soon, as the mud of Cairo is not so sweet, I 
fancy, as the mud of the upper land. 

Off Boulak, 2$th Oct., 1866. 
I have got all ready, and shall sail on 
the 27th. My men have baked their bread 
and received their wages to go to Luxor and 
bring the boat back to Cairo to be let for me. 
Mabrookah, Omars wife and children, and 
her brother returned to Alexandria. I am 
glad to go. I have had a dreary worrying 
time here, and am tired of hearing of all the 
meannesses and wickedness which constitute 
the on dits here. Not that I hear much, but 
there is nothing else. Anyhow, I shall be best 



OFF BOULAK. 79 

at Luxor now the winter has begun so early. 
You would laugh at such winter when I sit 
out all day under an awning in English 
summer clothes, and want only two blankets 
at night ; but all is comparative ici has, and I 
call it cold, and Mabrook ceases to consider 
his clothes such a grievance as they were to 
him at first, and takes kindly to a rough 
capote for the night. 

I have just been interrupted by my Reis 
and one of my men, who came in to display 
the gorgeous printed calico they have bought ; 
one for his Luxor wife and the other for his 
betrothed up near Assouan. (The latter is 
about eight years old, and Hosein has dressed 
her and paid her expenses these five years, as 
is the custom up in that district.) The Reis 
has bought a silk headkerchief for nine shillings, 
but that was in the marriage contract. So I 
must see, admire, and wish good luck to the 
finery and to the girls w r ho are to wear it. 
Then we had a little talk about the prospects 
of letting the boat, and making some money 
for el gemma, i.e. " all our company," or 
"all of us together." The Reis hopes that 
the " Hawagah " will not be too outrageous in 
their ways or given to use the stick, as the 
solution of every difficulty. % 

Some young Shurafa came to-day to bid 



8o LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



me good-bye and bring their letters. I asked 
them about the rumours that the Ulema are 
preaching against the Franks (which is always 
being said), but they had heard nothing of the 
sort, and said they had not heard anything the 
Franks had done lately which could signify to 
the Muslims at all. I will end now, and will 
soon write again. I feel like the wandering 
Jew and long for home and rest, without being 
dissatisfied with what I have and enjoy, God 
knows. If I could get better and come home 
next summer ! ! 

Luxor, 21st Nov., 1866. 
I write in answer to yours by the steamer, 
to go down by the same. I fancy I should be 
quite of your mind about Italy and Germany. 
I hate the return of Europe to 

" The good old rule and simple plan, 

That he should take who has the power, 
And he should keep who can," 

nor can I ever be bullied into looking on 
" might as right/' Many thanks for the papers. 
I am anxious to hear about the Candia busi- 
ness. All my neighbours who have sons 
growing up, are sick at heart — the poor 
wretches are miserable indeed. 



LUXOR. 



Si 



I am glad you liked the old lion. I stole 
him for you "from a temple where he served 
as footstool for people to mount their donkeys. 
If you see the Prussian consul, I wish you 
would tell hinj I strongly recommend the Copt 
Teodoros to be his consular agent ; he has 
fulfilled the duties to everyone's satisfaction 
for several years, and is a very worthy man. 
His son is my pupil, and a sweet boy ; he is one 
of the best I have. 

I arrived at Luxor on the morning of the 
nth, and meant to have written sooner, but 
I caught cold after four days, and have really 
not been well. We came up best pace, as my 
boat is a flyer now, fourteen days to Thebes, 
and to Keneh only eleven. Then we had bad 
wind, and my men pulled away at the rope, and 
sang about the " Reis el Arees " (bridegroom) 
going to his bride. We were all very merry, 
and played practical jokes on a rascal who 
wanted a pound to guide me to the tombs : 
we made him run miles, fetch innumerable 
donkeys, and then we laughed at his beard. 
Such is boatmen fun. On arriving at Luxor 
I heard a charivari of voices, and knew I was 
" at home," by the shrill pipe of the little 
children, " el sitt, el sitt, el sitt " (the lady, 
the lady, the lady). Visitors all day, of course, 
— at night comes up another dahabieh — great 

G 



02 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 



commotion, as it had been telegraphed from 
Cairo (which I knew before I left, and was 
to be stopped). 

The dahabieh contained an Indian walee (a 
saint), with a large hareem, and suite. He 
huffs Pashas and Moodirs ruthlessly, and 
gives away immense charity to the poor. The 
Government have him watched, though I can't 
conceive why, as he is perfectly outside of all 
that could affect Egyptian politics, as his estates 
are at Hyderabad. After Assouan he will be 
dogged by Arnouts, or something of that sort. 
He is a good, straightforward sort of fellow, 
whether saint or magician. He gave me some 
sort of pills to take ; and some men urge me 
to take them, and others tell me on no account 
to take them, but to throw them into the Nile, 
lest they should turn me into a mare or donkey. 
I shall keep them till I find a chemist to analyse 
them. 

When the dahabieh arrived, I said, " Oh, 
Mustafa, the Indian saint is in thine eye, 
seeing that an Indian is all as one with an 
Englishman." 14 How did I know there was 
an Indian and a saint?" &c. Meanwhile, the 
saint had a bad thumb, and some one told his 
slave that there was a wonderful English 
doctress, so in the morning he sent for me, 
and I went inside the hareem. He was very 



LUXOR. 



»3 



friendly, and made me sit beside him, told me 
he was fourth in descent from Abd el Kader el 
Gylamee of Bagdad, but his father settled at 
Hyderabad, where he has great estates. He 
said he was a walee or saint, and would have 
it that I was in the path of the Derweeshes ; 
gave me the pills I have mentioned for cough ; 
asked me many questions, and finally gave me 
five dollars, and asked me if I wanted more. 
I thanked him heartily, kissed the money 
politely, and told him I was not poor enough to 
want it, and would give it in his name to the 
poor of Luxor, but that I would never forget 
that the Indian Sheykh had behaved like a 
brother to an Englishwoman in a strange land. 
He then spoke in great praise of the " laws of 
the English," and said many more kind things 
to me, adding again, " I tell thee thou art 
a Derweesh, and do not thou forget me." 
Another Indian from Lahore, I believe the 
Sheykh s tailor, came to see me — an intelligent 
man, and a Syrian doctor. The people here 
said he was a Bahlawar (a rope-dancer or 
gymnast). The authorities detained the boat 
with fair words till orders came from Keneh 
to let them go up further. Meanwhile, the 

* Abd el Kader is the saint of Bagdad. The Bedouirs 
firmly believe in him and occasionally see him. He appears 
once a year mounted on a splendid horse and fully armed. 

G 2 



84 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

Sheykh came out and performed some miracles, 
which I was not there to see, perfuming people's 
hands by touching them with his, and taking 
English sovereigns out of a pocketless jacket ; 
and the doctor told wonders of him. Anyhow, 
he spent id/, in one day here, and he is a 
regular Derweesh. He and all the hareem 
were poorly dressed, and wore no ornaments 
whatevfer. I hope Seyd Abdurachman will 
come down safe again. It is the first time I 
ever saw an Oriental travelling for pleasure. 
He had about ten or twelve in the hareem, 
among them his three little children, and 
perhaps twenty men outside, Arabs from 
Syria I fancy. 

Next day I moved into the old house, and 
found one end in ruins, owing to the high Nile 
and want of repair. However, there is plenty 
more safe and comfortable. I settled my ac- 
counts with my men, and made an inventory 
in Arabic, which Sheykh Yussuf wrote for me, 
and which we laughed over hugely. How to 
express a sauce-boat, a pie-dish, &c, in Arabic, 
was a poser. A genteel Effendi, who sat by, 
at last burst out in uncontrollable amazement ; 
" There is no God but God : is it possible that 
four or five Franks can use all those things to 
eat, drink, and sleep, on a journey ?" (N.B. 
I fear the Franks will think the stock very 



LUXOR. 85 

scanty.) Whereupon Master Achmet, with 
the swagger of one who has seen cities and 
men, held forth : "Oh, Effendim, that is nothing : 
our lady is almost like the children of the Arabs. 
One dish or two, a piece of bread, a few dates, 
and Peace " (as we say there is an end of it), 
" But thou shouldst see the merchants of Scan- 
dareeh : three tablecloths, forty dishes ; to each 
soul seven plates of all sorts, seven knives and 
seven forks, and seven spoons, large and small, 
and seven different glasses for wine and beer 
and water." " It is the will of God," replied 
the Effendi, rather put down ; " but," he added, 
" it must be a dreadful fatigue to them to eat 
their dinner." 

Then came an impudent merchant who 
wanted to go down to Cairo with his bales 
and five souls in my boat for nothing. But 
I said, " Oh, man, she is my property, and I 
will eat from her of thy money as of the money 
of the Franks." Whereupon he offered 1/., 
but was bundled out amid general reproaches 
for his avarice and want of shame. Then all 
the company said a Fattah for the success of 
the voyage, and the Reis Mohammed was 
exhorted to " open his eyes," and he should 
have a tarboosh if he did well. 

Then I went to visit my friend, the Maohn's 
wife, and tell her all about her charming daugh- 



S6 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

ter and grandchildren. I was, of course, an 
hour in the streets salaaming, &c. " Sheeraf- 
teenee Baladna, thou hast honoured our country 
on all sides." " Blessings come with thee," &c. 

Everything is cheaper than last year, but 
there is no money to buy with, and the taxes 
have grown beyond bearing : as a a Fellah " 
said, <x a man can't sneeze without a cavass being 
ready to levy a tax on it." The ha'p'orth of 
onions we buy in the market is taxed on the 
spot, and the fish which the man catches under 
my window. I paid a tax on buying charcoal, 
and another on having it weighed. People are 
terribly beaten to get next year's taxes out of 
them, which they have not the money to pay. 

The Nubian M.P/s passed the other day in 
three boats, towed by a steamer, very frightened 
and sullen. I fell in with some Egyptians on 
my way, and tried the European style of talk. 
<c Now you will help to govern the country : 
what a fine thing for you/' &c. I got such a 
look of rueful reproach. " Laugh not thou at 
our beards, oh Effendim. Gods mercy, what 
words are these ? and who is there on the 
banks of the Nile who can say anything but 
' Hadar ?' (ready) with both hands on the head 
and a salaam to the ground even to a Mudir ; 
and thou talkest of speaking before Effendina ! " 
" i\rt thou mad, Effendim ?" and the wretched 



LUXOR. 87 

delegates to the Egyptian chamber (God save 
the mark) are going down with their hearts in 
their shoes. 

The first steamer full of travellers has just 
arrived (27th November), and with it the 
bother of the ladies all wanting my side-saddle. 
I forbade Mustafa to send for it, but they 
intimidate the poor old fellow, and he comes 
and kisses my hand not to get him into trouble 
with one old woman who says she is the rela- 
tion of a consul and a great lady in her own 
country. I am what Mrs. Grote calls " cake " 
enough to concede to Mustafa's fears what I 
had sworn to refuse henceforth. Last year 
five women all sent for my saddle, besides 
other things — camp-stools, umbrellas, beer, &c. 

The big people are angry with the Indian 
saint, because he treated them like dirt every- 
where. One great man went to see him, and 
asked him to sell him a memlook (a pretty 
boy). The Indian, who had not spoken or 
saluted, burst forth, " Be silent, thou wicked 
one ! dost thou dare to ask me for a soul to 
take it with thee to hell ? " Fancy the surprise 
of the " distinguished " Turk. Never had he 
heard such language. The story has travelled 
all up the river, and is of course much enjoyed. 

Last night Sheykh Yussuf gave an enter- 
tainment, killed a sheep, and had a reading of 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



the " Sirat er Russool." It was the night of 
the prophet's great vision, and is a great night 
in Islam. I was sorry not to be w r ell enough 
to go. Now that there is no Cadi here, Sheykh 
Yussuf has much business to settle ; and he came 
to me and' said, " Expound to me the laws of 
marriage and inheritance of the Christians, that 
I may do no wrong in the affairs of the Copts, 
for they won't go and be settled by the priest 
out of the Gospels, and I can't find any laws^ 
except about marriage in the Gospels." I set 
him up with the text of the tribute money, and 
told him to judge according to his own laws, 
for that Christians had no laws other than that 
of the country they lived in. Poor Yussuf was 
sore perplexed about a divorce case. I refused 
to " expound/' and told him all the learned in 
the law in England had not yet settled which 
text to follow. 

Do you remember the German story of the 
lad who travelled "um das gruseln zu lernen" 
(to learn how to tremble) ? Well,'. I, who never 
gruselte (quaked) before, had a touch of it a few 
evenings ago. I was sitting here quietly drinking 
tea and four or five men were present, when a 
cat came to the door. I called " bis y bis" and 
offered milk, but puss, after looking at us, ran 
away. " Well dost thou, lady," said a quiet, 
sensible man, a merchant here ; " to be kind to 



LUXOR. 89 

the cat, for I dare say he gets little enough at 
home ; his father, poor man, cannot cook for his 
children every day." And then in an explanatory 
tone to the company, " That is Alee Nasseeree's 
boy Yussuf— it must be Yussuf, because his fellow 
twin Ismaeen is with his mule at Negadeh." 
Mir gruselte (I shivered), I confess ; not but 
what I have heard things almost as absurd 
from gentlemen and ladies in Europe ; but an 
" extravagance " in 2.kuftan has quite a different 
effect from one in a tail coat. " What ! my 
butcher s boy who brings the meat, — a cat ? " 
I gasped. " To be sure, and he knows well 
where to look for a bit of good cookery, you 
see. All twins go out as cats at night, if they 
go to sleep hungry ; and their own bodies lie 
at home like dead meanwhile, but no one must 
touch them, or they would die. When they 
grow up to ten or twelve they leave it off. 
Why your own boy Achmet does it. Oh, 
Achmet ! " Achmet appears. " Boy, don't you 
go out as a cat at night ? " " No," said Achmet 
tranquilly, " I am not a twin — my sister's sons 
do." I enquired if people here were not afraid 
of such cats. " No, there is no fear, they only 
eat a little of the cookery ; but if you beat 
them they will tell their parents next day, 1 So 
and so beat me in his house last night/ and 
show their bruises. No, they are not Afreets; 



90 LAST LETTERS FROM EG YPT. 

they are beni Adam ; only twins do it, and if you 
give them a sort of onion broth and earners 
milk the first thing when they are born, they 
don't do it at all." Omar professed never to 
have heard it, but I am sure he had, only 
he dreads being laughed at. One of the 
American missionaries told me something like 
it, as belonging to the Copts, but it is entirely 
Egyptian, and common to both religions. I 
asked several Copts, who assured me it was 
true, and told it just the same. Is it a remnant 
of the doctrine of transmigration ? However, 
the notion fully accounts for the horror the 
people feel at the idea of killing a cat. 

A poor pilgrim from the far black country 
was taken ill yesterday at a village six miles 
hence ; he could speak a few words of Arabic 
only, and begged to be carried to the Ababdeh. 
So the Sheykh el Beled put him on a donkey 
and sent him and his little boy, and laid him in 
Sheykh Hassans house. He called for Hassan 
and begged him to take care of the child, and 
to send him to an uncle somewhere in Cairo. 
Hassan said, " Oh, you will get well, &c, and 
take the boy with you." " I cannot take him into 
the grave with me," said the black pilgrim. Well, 
in the night he died, and the boy went to Hassan's 
mat and said, " Oh, Hassan ! my father is 
dead." So the two Sheykhs and several men 



LUXOR. 91 

got up and went and sat with the boy till 
dawn, because he refused to lie down or to 
leave his fathers corpse. At daybreak he said, 
" Take me now and sell me, and buy new cloth 
to dress my father for the tomb." All the 
Ababdeh cried when they heard it, and Hassan 
went and bought the cloth, and some sweet- 
stuff for the boy who remains with him. Such 
is death on the road in Egypt. I tell it as 
H assan's slave told it me, and somehow we all 
cried again at the poor little boy rising from 
his dead father's side to say, " Come, now, 
sell me to dress my father for the tomb." 
These strange black pilgrims always interest 
me. Many take four years to Mecca and 
home, and have children born to them on the 
road, and learn a few words of Arabic. 

I must leave off, for Mahboobeh has come 
to rub me after the fashion of her country with 
her soft brown hands and with oils, to take the 

pains out of my bones. Kiss my R for me. 

What would I give to see her face ? 

LUXOR, 31st December, 1866. 

I meant to have sent you a long letter by the 
consul-general's steamer, but ever since he went 
up to Assouan I have been in my bed. The 
weather set in colder than I ever felt it here. 
. . . An Egyptian doctor, who has studied in 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



Paris, wants me to spend the summer up here, 
and take sand baths, i.e. bury myself up to the 
chin in the hot sand, and to get a Dongola girl 
to rub me. A most fascinating Derweesh from 
Esneh gave me the same advice ; he wanted 
me to go and live near him at Esneh, and let 
him treat me. 

I wish you could see a friend of mine — he 
is a sort of remnant of the Mamlook Beys — a 
Circassian, who has inherited his master's 
property, and married his masters daughter. 
The master was one of the Beys, also a slave 
inheriting from his master. After being a 
terrible Shaitan (devil) after drink, women, &c. 
my friend has repented and become a man of 
pilgrimage and prayer and perpetual fasting; but 
he has retained the exquisite grace and charm of 
manner which must have made him irresistible 
in his Shaitan days, and also the beautifully 
delicate style of dress — a dove-coloured cloth 
sibbeh over a pale blue silk ktiftan, a turban 
like a snow-drift, under which flowed the silky 
fair hair and beard, and the dainty white hands 
under the long muslin shirt sleeve made a 
picture ; and such a smile, and such ready 
graceful talk ! He was brought to me as a sort 
of doctor, and also to try to convert me on one 
point. A Christian had made some of my 
friends quite miserable, by telling them of the 



LUXOR. 93 

doctrine that all imbaptized infants went to 
eternal fire ; and as they knew that I had lost a 
child very young, it weighed on their minds 
that perhaps I fretted about this, and so they 
could not refrain from trying to convince me 
that God was. not so cruel and unjust as the 
Nazarene priests represented Him, and that 
all infants whatsoever, as well as all ignorant 
persons, were to be saved. " Would that I 
could take the cruel error out of the minds 
of all the hundreds and thousands of poor 
Christian mothers who must be tortured by it," 
said he, " and let them understand that their 
dead babies are with Him who sent and took 
them." I own I did not resent this interference 
with my orthodoxy, especially as it is the only 
one I ever knew my friends attempt. 

Another Arab doctor came up in the pas- 
senger boat, a Shereef and eminently a gentle- 
man. He called on me and spent all his spare 
time with me. I liked him better than the 
bewitching Derweesh ; he is so like my old 
love, Don Quixote. He was amazed and 
delighted at what he heard here about me. 
" Ah, madame, on vous dime comme une sceur, et 
on vous respecte comme une reine ; cela rejouit le 
coeur des honnetes gens de voir tons les prejuges 
oublies et detruits a ce point!' We had no end of 
talk about things in general. My friend is the 



94 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

only Arab who has read a good deal of European 
literature and history. He said, " Vous settle 
dans toute U Egypte, connaissez le peuple et com- 
prenez ce qui se passe : tons les autres Europeens 
ne savent absolument rien que les dehors ; il riy 
a que votes qui ayez inspire la confiance qtiil 
fatit pour connaitre la verite" I don't repeat 
this as a boast, but it is a proof of the kind 
thoughts people have of me, simply because I 
am decently civil to them. 

In Egypt we are eaten up with taxes ; there 
is not a penny left to anyone. I saw one of 
the poor dancing girls the other day. Each 
woman is made to pay according to her pre- 
sumed gains, ue.y her good looks. It is left to 
the discretion of the official who farms the 
taxes, and thus these poor girls are exposed 
to all the caprices and extortions of the police. 
This taxing the women has excited more disgust 
than any. The wages of sin are unclean, and 
this tax renders all Government salaries un- 
lawful according to strict law. The capitation 
tax, too, which was remitted on the Pasha's 
accession to the people of Cairo, Alexandria, 
and Damietta, is now called for. You may 
conceive the distress this must cause among 
artisans, &c, who have spent this money, 
and forgotten it. 

There was a meeting here the other day of 



LUXOR. 95 

the notables to fix the amount of tax each man 
was to pay towards the increased police tax ; 
and one said he had heard that one man had 
asked me to lend him money, and that he hoped 
such a thing would not happen again. Every- 
one knew I had had heavy expenses this year, 
and most likely had not much money ; that my 
heart was soft, and that as everyone was in 
distress it would be " breaking my head ;" and 
in short that he should think it unmanly if 
anyone tried to trouble a lone woman with his 
troubles. I did offer one man two pounds that he 
might not be forced to run away to the desert, 
but he refused it and said, " I had better go at 
once and rob out there, and not turn rogue 
towards thee — never could I pay it back." 
The people are running away in all directions ; 
altogether everyone is gloomy, and many des- 
perate. I never saw the aspect of a popula- 
tion so changed. 

When the Moolid, or festival, of the Sheykh 
came the whole family of Abu '1 Haggag could 
only raise 620 piastres among them to buy the 
buffalo cow, which by custom — strong as the 
laws of the Medes and Persians — must be killed 
for the strangers who come ; and a buffalo cow 
is worth 1,000 piastres. So the stout old Shereef 
(aged 87) took his neboot (quarter-staff) and 
the 620 piastres, and sallied forth to walk to 



96 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

Erment and see what God would send them ; 
and a charitable woman in Erment did give 
a buffalo cow for the 620 piastres, and he drove 
her home the twenty miles rejoicing. 

To turn to my own affairs. My boat is let, but 
I am wroth with my reis, who took seventeen 
days to go down, and unless he can prove quite 
clearly what he was about I shall dismiss him. 
Food is cheap here : that is, meat and poultry, 
because everyone is forced to sell in order to 
pay the new taxes ; and the market is glutted 
with turkeys. Omar bought nine fine ones for 
one pound sterling. 

There is a notion of some one coming here 
to open a drinking shop ; if so I shall resign 
the house. Luckily all Mustafa's hareem are 
away, except dear old black Mahboobeh ; and 
I shall go and live with her, and be very 
comfortable. My Arab friends are rabid at 
the notion of a Frangee — a seller of arrakee — 
being quartered on their Sitt. 

\2th January, 1867. 

The weather has changed for the better, and 
it is not at all cold now. W e shall see what 
the warm weather does for me. It has been 
a colder winter than I have seen at all in 
Egypt. You make my heart yearn with your 
account of R . If we only had Prince 



LUXOR. 97 

Achmet's carpet, and you could all come here 
for a few months. 

We were greatly excited here last week; a 
boy was shot, out in the sugar-cane field: he 
was with four Copts — and at first it looked 
ugly for the Copts. But the Maohn tells me 
he is convinced they are innocent, and that they 
only prevaricated from fear — it was robbers who 
shot the poor child. What struck and surprised 
me in the affair was the excessive horror and 
consternation it produced : the Maohn had not 
had a murder in his district at all in eight years. 
The market-place was thronged with wailing 
women. The horror of killing seems greater 
here than ever I saw it. Palgrave says the 
same of the Arabian Arabs in his book : it is 
not one's notion of oriental feeling, but a murder 
in England is as nothing compared with the 
scene here. I fear there will be robberies, 
owing to the distress and the numbers who are 
running away from their land unable to pay the 
taxes. Don't fear for me, for I have two 
watchmen in the house every night — the regular 
guard and an amateur — a man whose boy 
I took down to Cairo to study in Gama '1 
Azhar. 

To-day the four Copts have again changed 
their story, and after swearing that the robbers 
were strangers, have accused a man who has 

H 



9 8 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

shot birds for me all this winter : and the poor 
fellow is gone to Keneh in chains. 

You would have been amused to see me 
carried out in my own arm-chair, high up on 
the shoulders of four men, like a successful 
candidate, or more like one of the Pharaohs in 
an ancient bas-relief on the walls of the temple ; 
before me went torch-bearers, with cressets 
flamingv and a miscellaneous suite of ragged 
attendants brought up the rear.. In such state 
did I eo to dine with the English Consul. 

Ismaeen, Belzoni's old servant, is dead, aged 
over 100; when he was young he walked from 
Cairo to Luxor in twelve days ; rested one day 
and walked to Abu-Simbel (near the second 
cataract) in eight more. He served Belzoni, 
and when he grew doting he was always want- 
ing me to go with him to join Belzoni at Abu- 
Simbel. He was not ill — he only went out like 
a candle : he would have made a beautiful 
picture of old Isaac as he lay dying. His great- 
grandson brought me a bit of the meat cooked 
at his funeral, and begged me to eat it, that I 
might live to be very old, according to the 
superstition here. When they killed the buffalo 
for the Sheykh Abu '1 Haggag, the man who 
had a right to the feet kindly gave them to 
Omar, who wanted to make calves -foot jelly for 
me. I had a sort of profane feeling, as if I 



LUXOR. 99 

were eating a descendant of the bull Apis. I 
will send over a little collection of things ; there 
is the flail (which antiquaries have called a 
scourge, but it is manifestly a flail) of Osiris, 
taken from some very aristocratic mummy — 
very curious indeed — and other odds and 
ends. 

I wish I could show you a new friend of 
mine, an Arab, who studied medicine five 
years in Paris. My heart warmed to him 
directly, because, like most high-bred Arabs, 
he is so like Don Quixote, — only Don Quixote 
in his senses. The sort of innocent senten- 
tiousness and profusely natural love of fine 
language and fine sentiments is unattainable to 
any European, except, I suppose, a Spaniard. 
It is quite unlike Italian fustian or French 
sentiment. I suppose to most Europeans it 
is ridiculous, but I used to cry when the 
Yanguesan carriers beat the most noble of 
all knights, when I was a little girl and read 
" Don Quixote ;" and now I felt as it were like 
Sancho, when I listened to my friend reciting 
bits of heroic poetry, or uttering wise saws 
and modern instances " with that peculiar 
mixture of strong sense of "exaltation" which 
stamps the great Don : the insults my friend 
had to endure — a Shereef and an educated 
man — from coarse Turks ; it was the carriers 

II 2 



ioo LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

over again. He told me he had often cried 
like a woman at night in his own room at the 
miseries he was forced to witness, and could 
do nothing to relieve ; all the men I have 
particularly liked I find are more or less pupils 
of a certain Sheykh now dead, who seemed 
to have had a gift of inspiring honourable 
feeling. 

The travellers are beginning to come now, 
but I believe there are very few this year : not 
a tenth of what there used to be. 

Thebes, und January, 1867. 

The weather has been lovely for the last 
week, and I am therefore somewhat better. 
My boat arrived to-day, with all the men in 
high good humour, and all in good order, only 
the people in Cairo gave her the evil eye, 
and broke the iron part of the rudder, which 
had to be repaired in Benisouef ; otherwise all 
is prosperous. The tenants of my boat have 
sent me some wild geese ; they are mighty 
hunters before the Lord. They go to Wady 
Halfeh, and we are all to pray desperately 
that she may come down the cataract safe ; 
also the authorities here have written to those 
of Assouan to do all in their power to make 
the cataract men do their best. Mr. Lear, the 
artist, has been here the last few days, and is 



THEBES. 



101 



just going up to the second cataract; he has 
done a little drawing of my house for you — a 
new view of it. Americans swarm in the 
steamboats, and a good many in dahabiehs. 

Such a queer fellow came here the other 
day — a stalwart Holsteiner — I should think 
a man of 50, who had been four years up in 
the Soudan and Sennaar, and, being penniless, 
had walked all through Nubia, begging his 
way. He was not the least " down upon his 
luck," and spoke with enthusiasm of the hos- 
pitality and kindness of Sir Samuel Baker's 
" tigers " — " Ja, das sind die rechten Kerls ! das 
ist das gltickliche Leben." (Those indeed 
are the right sort of fellows ! that is a glorious 
life.) His account is that if you go with an 
armed party, the blacks naturally show fight, 
as men with guns, in their eyes, are always 
slave-hunters ; but if you go alone and poor, 
they kill an ox for you, unless you prefer a 
sheep, give you a hut, and generally anything 
they have to offer, " merissey " (beer) to make 
you as drunk as a lord, and young ladies to 
pour it out for you — and you need not wear 
any clothes. If you had heard him you would 
have started for the interior at once. I gave 
him a dinner and a bottle of common wine, 
which he emptied, and a few shillings, and away 
he trudged merrily towards Cairo. I wonder 



102 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 



what the Nubians thought of a " liawagah/" 
(gentleman) begging. He said they were very 
kind, and that he often ate what he was sure 
they pinched themselves to give — dourrah- 
bread and dates. 

In the evening we were talking of this man's 
stories, and of " anthropophagi and men whose 
heads do grow" to a prodigious height, by 
means of an edifice woven of their own hair, 
and other queer things, when Hassan told a 
story which pleased me particularly. " My 
father," said he, " Sheykh Mohammed (who 
was a taller and handsomer man than I am), 
was once travelling very far up in the black 
country, and he and the men he was with had 
very little to eat, and had killed nothing for 
many days ; presently they heard a sort of 
wailing out of a hole in the rock, and some of 
the men went in and dragged out a creature, — 
I know not, and my father knew not, whether 
a child of Adam or a beast. But it was like 
a very foul-faced and ill-shaped woman, and 
had six toes on its feet. The men wished to 
slay it, according to the law declaring it to be 
a beast and lawful food ; but when it saw the 
knife, it cried sadly, and covered its face with 
its hands in terror, and my father said, ' By 
the Most High God, ye shall not kill the poor 
woman-beast, which thus begs its life. I teli 



THEBES. 103 

you it is unlawful to eat one so like the 
children of Adam ;' and the beast or woman 
clung to him, and hid under his cloak ; and 
my father carried her for some time behind 
him on his horse, until they saw some creatures 
like her, and then he sent her to them, but he 
had to drive her from him by force, for she 
clung 1 to him. 1 Thinkest thou, Lady, it was 
really a beast, or some sort of children of 
Adam ? ' " 

" God knows, and He only," said I, piously, 
"but by His indulgent name, thy father, oh 
Sheykh, was a true nobleman." Sheykh 
Yussuf chimed in, and gave a decided opinion, 
that a creature able to understand the sight 
of the knife, and to act so, was not lawful to 
kill for food. You see what a real Arab Don 
Quixote w r as. It is a picture worthy of him, — ■ 
the tall, noble-looking Ababdeh sheltering the 
poor " woman-beast " — most likely a gorilla or 
chimpanzee, and carrying her en croupe* 

Thebes, 2\th January, 1S67. 
I am a good deal better since the weather 
has got warmer, but I fear that I ought to 
stay here. The risk of the journey to Europe 
would be very great. I wish you could take 
November, December, January, and February 
here with M , and go. up the Nile ; there 



1&4 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

is the boat all so nice, and only the crew to 
pay. Do think of it ; or are you too possessed 
with the idea that the Nile is a bore ? Ask 
Mr. Lear, who was here the other day. He 
was in raptures. 

I think I told you that a sort of commis 
voyageur is going to open a grog-shop here. 
Of course I shall turn out and go and live 
with old Mustafa, who has the best Arab 
house here, and whose hareem is all gone to 
Alexandria, except old black Mahboobeh, who 
would be a comfort to me. Sheykh Yussufs 
nice new wife was eager to have me with her ; 
but the house is small and has no windows, 
and it is not yet warm enough for me to sleep 
al fresco. I wish I could betray dear Yussufs 
confidence, and tell you his love story ; but 
the things of the hareem are very sacred. I 
should much like to go to India, but I fear any 
change at present ; and if I dare move I would 
go homewards and towards you. The weather 
is lovely now, and I am better ; but I dare 
hardly think yet of moving this summer. I 
have a great idea of trying the Arab sand 
bath. 

My boat has gone up to-day with two very 
nice young Englishmen in her. Their young- 
Maltese dragoman, aged 24, told me his father 
often talked of my father and George Lewis, 



THEBES. 



105 



the commissioners at Malta, and all the good 
they had done, and how things were changed 
for the better. He also appeared to hate the 
Italians with ferocity. He said all decent 
people in Malta would ten times rather belong 
to the Mohammedans than to the Italians. Is 
that a new feeling? He was a very respectable 
young man, and being a dragoman, and the 
son of a dragoman, he has seen the world, 
and particularly the Muslims. I suppose it is 
the Pope that makes the Italians so hateful to 
them. 

Everything spiritual and temporal has been 
done for my boat's safety in the cataract — 
urgent letters to the Maohn el Bandar and 
him of Assouan to see to the men, and plenty 
of prayers and vows to Abu '1 Haggag on 
behalf of the "lady," or — kurzweg — (our 
boat), as she is commonly called in Luxor. 

Here we have the other side of the misery 
of the Candian business ; in Europe, of course, 
the obvious thing is the sufferings of the 
Cretans, but really I am equally sorry for the 
poor " fellah " lads who are dragged away to 
fight in a quarrel they had no hand in raising, 
and with which they have no sympathy. The 
Times suggests that the Sultan should relinquish 
the island, and that has been said in many an 
Egyptian hut long before. The Sultan is worn 



io6 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



out, and the [Muslims here know it, and say it 
would be the best thing for the Arabs if he 
were driven out ; that after all a Turk never 
was the true " Ameer el Moomeneen " (Com- 
mander of the Faithful). Only in Europe 
people talk and write as if it were all Muslim 
versus Christian, and the Christians were all 
oppressed, and the [Muslims all oppressors. 
I wish thev could see the domineering- of the 
Greeks and Maltese as Christians. The 
Englishman domineers as a free man and a 
Briton, which is different, and that is the 
reason why the Arabs wish for English rule, 
and would dread that of Eastern Christians. 
Well they may ; for if ever the Greeks do 
reign in Stamboul the sufferings of the 
Muslims will satisfy the most eager fanatic 
that ever cursed " Mahound/' I know nothing 
of Turkey, but I have heard and seen enough 
to know that there are plenty of other divisions 
besides that of Christian and Muslim. Here 
in Egypt it is clear enough : it is Arab versus 
Turk, and the Copt siding with the stronger 
for his interest, while he rather sympathises 
with his brother u fellah/' At all events the 
Copt don't want other Christians to get power ; 
he would far rather have a Muslim than a 
heretic ruler, above all, the hated Greek. The 
Englishman he looks upon as a variety of 



LUXOR. 107 

Muslim — a man who washes, has no pictures 
in church, who has married bishops, and, 
above all, who does not fast from all that has 
life for half the year, and thus heresy is so 
extreme as not to gdve offence unless he tries 
to convert. 

The little boy I mentioned is still with the 
Ababdeh, who will not let him travel to Cairo 
till the weather is warmer and they find a 
safe person to be kind to him. Rachmeh says, 
" Please God he will go with the Sitt, perhaps/'' 
Hassan has consoled him with sugar-cane and 
indulgence ; and if I lose Mabrook, and the 
little boy takes to me, he may fall into my 
hands, as Achmet has done. I hear he is a 
good boy, but quite a savage ; that, however, 
I find makes no difference — in fact, I think 
they learn service faster than those who have 
ways of their own. 

Luxor, February yd, 1867. 
There is a man here from Girgeh, who 
says he is married to a ginneeyeh (fairy) 
princess. I have asked to be presented to 
her, but I suspect there will be some hitch 
about it. Do you remember Alexis saying 
to me, " Allez, Madame, vous etes trop in- 
credule " ! The unintelligible thing is the 
motive which prompts wonders and miracles 



108 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

here, seeing that the wonder-workers do not 
get any money by it ; and, indeed, very often 
give, like the Indian "welee" I told you of, 
who gave me five dollars. His miracles were 
all gratis, which was the most miraculous thing 
of all in a saint. I am promised that the 
" ginneeyeh " shall come through the wall. 
If she should do so I shall be compelled to 
believe in her, as there are no mechanical 
contrivances in Luxor. All the hareem believe 
it, and the man's human wife swears she waits 
on her like a slave, and backs her husband's 
lie or delusion fully. I have not seen the man, 
but I should not wonder if it were a delusion, 
— real bond fide visions and revelations are so 
common, and I think there is but little down- 
right imposture. Meanwhile, familiarity breeds 
contempt. Ginns, x^freets, and Shaitans inspire 
far less respect than the stupidest ghost at 
home, and the Devil (Iblees) is reduced to 
deplorable insignificance. He is never men- 
tioned in the pulpit, or in religious conversa- 
tion, with the respect he enjoys in Christian 
countries. I suppose we may console our- 
selves with the hope that he will pay off 
the Muslims for their neglect of him, here- 
after. 

I cannot describe to you the misery here 
now ; indeed, it is wearisome even to think 



LUXOR. 109 

of: every day some new tax. Now every 
beast, camel, cow, sheep, donkey, horse, is 
made to pay. The fellaheen can no longer 
eat bread ; they are living on barley meal, 
mixed with water and raw green stuff, 
vetches, &c, which to people used to good 
food is terrible, and I see all my acquaintance 
growing seedy and ragged and anxious. The 
taxation makes life almost impossible — 100 
piastres per feddan, — a tax on every crop, on 
every animal first, and again when it is sold 
in the market ; on every man, on charcoal, on 
butter, on salt. I wonder I am not tormented 
for money — not above three people have tried 
to beg or borrow. 

Thanks for the Westminster epilogue ; it 
always amuses me much. So Terence was a 
nigger! I would tell Rachmeh so, if I could 
make him understand who Terence was, and 
that he — Rachmeh — stood in need of any 
encouragement ; but this worthy fellow never 
imagined that his skin is in any way inferior 
to mine. There is no trace of the nigger boy 
in Terence's Davus. 

My nigger boy, Mabrook, has grown huge, 
and has developed a voice of thunder. He 
is of the elephantine rather than the tiger 
species ; a very mild young savage. If he 
goes, I am tempted to take Yussufs nice 



I IO 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



little Dinka girl to replace him. But a girl 
is such an impossibility where there is no 
regular hareern. In the boat Achmet is 
enough under Omar ; but in this huw dustv 
house, and with errands to run, and comers 
and goers to look after, pipes and coffee and 
the like, it takes two boys to be comfortable. 
It is surprising how fast these boys learn, 
and how well they do their work. Achmet, 
who is quite little, would be a perfectly 
sufficient servant for a man alone ; he can 
cook, wash, clean the rooms, make the beds, 
do all the table service, knife and plate 
cleaning, all very fairly well. Mabrook is 
slower, but has the same merit our poor 
Hassan had ; he never forgets what he has 
been told to do, and he is clean in his work, 
though hopelessly dirty as to his clothes. He 
cannot get used to them, and takes a roll in 
the dust, or leans against a dirty mud wall, 
oblivious of his clean-washed blue shirt. 
Achmet is quicker and more careless, but 
they are both good boys, and very fond of 
Omar. " Uncle Omar" is the form of address, 
though he scolds them pretty severely if they 
misbehave ; and I observe that the high jinks 
take place chiefly when only I am in the way, 
and Omar gone to market or to the mosque. 
The little rogues have found out that their 



LUXOR. 



1 1 1 



laughing does not " affect my nerves/' and I 
am often treated to a share in the joke. 

How I wish R could see the children : 

they would amuse her. Yussuf's girl, " Meer 
en Nezzil," is a charming child, and very 
clever : her emphatic way of explaining every- 
thing to me, and her gestures, would delight 
you. Her cousin and future husband, aged 
five (she is six) broke the doll which I had 
given her, and her description of it was most 
dramatic, ending with a wheedling glance at 
the cupboard, and " Of course there are no 
more dolls there; oh no, no more." She is 
a fine little creature, far more Arab than 
"Fellaha;" quite a "Shaitan" (demon), her 
father says. She came in full of making cakes 
for Bairam, and offered her services. " Oh, 
my aunt, if thou wantest anything I can 
make," said she, tucking up her sleeves. 

Mabrook implores me to get him from 
Palgrave, and send another boy in his stead. 
I shall propose to do so, as he just suits me 
and I suit him. It is humiliating to find how 
much more I am to the taste of savages 
than of the " polite circles/' If Mabrook stays 
with me, perhaps Til buy him a wife some 
day ; it would be an eminently resoectable 
and pious transaction, and he could keep her 
in order. The babies shall be sent to you. 



112 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 



The heat has now set in (7th March), and, 
of course, with it my health has mended, but 
I am a little weak and afraid of tiring myself. 
I want to nurse up and be better by next 
Thursday, when J ■ and R are ex- 
pected here, as they telegraphed they were 
leaving Cairo in a steamer to-morrow. The 
people will insist on making great dinners and 
fantasias for her. I hope they will go on to 
Assouan and take me with them. The change 
will do me good, and I should like to see as 
much as I can of her before she leaves Egypt 

for good. I must arrange with R too, 

about letters, &c. 

Mustafa has found me a milk camel at last ; 
no easy matter, as all our camels are taken to 
work. You can't think what the war in Crete 
is to the people here. They who take no 
sort of pleasure in killing Christians, and only 
hate leaving their families ; and the cold and 
misery. 

It is long since I have heard of you, and I 
am getting anxious for letters ; pray tell me 
all the family news. I am much amused at 
your Dublin antiquary, who wants to white- 
wash Miss Rhampsinitus, and to identify her 
with the beloved of Solomon (or Saleem) ; my 
brain quite spun round as I read his letter. 

A dragoman gave me an old broken 



LUXOR. 113 

travelling arm-chair, and Yussuf sat in an arm- 
chair for the first time in his life. u May the 
soul of the man who made it find a seat in 
Paradise !" was his exclamation, which strikes 
me as singularly app:opriate on sitting down 
in a very comfortable arm-chair. " Yussuf was 
thankful for small mercies in this case. 

The state of business here is curious. The 
last regulations have stopped all money-lending, 
and the prisons are full of " Sheykhs el Beled," 
whose villages can't pay the taxes. Most 
respectable men have offered me to go partners 
with them now in their wheat, which will be 
cut in six weeks, if only I would pay their 
present taxes ; I to take half the crop and half 
the taxes, with interest out of their half — 
some such trifle as 30 per cent, per month. 
A Greek at Koos is doing this business, but, 
as he knows the people here, he accepts none 
but such as are vouched for by good " Cadees," 
and he will not lose a " faddah " (farthing). 
Our prison is full of men, and we send them 
their dinners in turns. The other day a woman 
went with the big wooden bowl on her head, 
full of what she had cooked for them, accom- 
panied by her husband. A certain Effendi, a 
new Vakeel here, was there, and said, " What 

dost thou ask here, thou — ?" calling her 

by an opprobrious name. Her husband said, 

T 



ii4 LAST LE TTERS FROM EG YPT. 

" She is my wife, oh Effindim ! " whereupon 
he was beaten till he fainted, and then there 
was a lamentation ; they carried him down past 
my house, with a crowd of women all shrieking 
like mad creatures, especially his wife, who 
yelled and beat her head and threw dust over 
it, 4< more majorum," as you may see in the 
tombs. Such are the humours of tax-gathering 
in this country. The distress in England is 
terrible, but, at least, it is not the result of 
extortion, as it is here, where everything from 
nature is so abundant and glorious, and yet 
mankind so miserable. It is not a little 
hunger, it is the cruel oppression which 
maddens the people now. They never com- 
plained before, but now whole villages are 
deserted, and thousands have ran away into 
the desert between this and Assouan. 

Luxor, March 6th, 1867. 

The warm weather has set in, and I am 
already as much the better for it as usual. 
But I have been very ill. Dear Sheykh 
Yussuf was with me the evening I was 
attacked, and sat up all night. At the prayer 
of dawn, an hour and a half before sunrise, 
I watched him wash and pray, and heard his 
supplications for my life and health and for 
you and all my family ; and I thought of 



LUXOR. 115 

what I had lately read, how the Greeks 
massacred their own patriots because the 
Turks had shown them mercy — a display of 
temper which I hope will enlighten Western 
Christendom as to what the Muslims have to 
expect if they (the Western Christians) help 
the Eastern Christians to get the upper hand. 
Yussuf was asking about a traveller the other 
day who had turned Catholic. " Poor thing," 
he said, " the priests have drawn the brains 
through the ears, no doubt : but never fear, 
the heart is good and the convert's charity is 
great, and God will deal lightly with those 
who serve Him with their hearts, though it is 
sad they should bow down before images. But 
look at thy slave Mabrook ; can he understand 
one hundredth part of the thoughts of thy 
mind ? Nevertheless, he loves thee, and obeys 
thee with pleasure and alacrity ; and wilt thou 
punish him because he knows not all thy ways ? 
And shah God, who is as much above us as thou 
art above thy slave, be less just than thou ? " 
I pinned the Mufti at once, and insisted on 
knowing the orthodox belief ; but he quoted 
the Koran and the decisions of the Ulema 
to show that he stretched no point as far as 
Jews and Christians are concerned, and even 
that idolaters are not to be condemned by man. 
Yussuf wants me to write a short notice of 

1 2 



n6 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

the faith from his dictation. I wonder if any- 
one would publish it It annoys him terribly 
to hear the Muslims constantly accused of 
intolerance, and he is right — it is not true. 
They show their conviction that their faith is 
the best in the world with the same sort of 
naivete that I have seen in very innocent and 
ignorant English women : in fact, display a 
sort of religious conceit ; but it is not often 
bitter or kaineux, however much they are in 
earnest. 

Achmet, who was always hankering after 
the fleshpots of Alexandria, got some people 
to take him, and came home and picked a 
quarrel and departed. Poor little fellow ; the 
" Sheykh el Beled " put a stop to his fun by 
informing him he would be wanted for the 
Pasha's works, and must stay in his own 
place. Since he went, Mabrook has come out 
wonderfully, and does his own work and 
Achmet's with the greatest satisfaction. He 
tells me he likes it best so ; he likes to be 
quiet. 

The old lady of the Maohn proposed to 
come to me, but I would not let her leave 
her home, which would be quite an adventure 
to her. I knew she would be exclamatory, 
and lament over me, and say every moment, 
"Oh my liver J oh my eyes! The name of 



LUXOR. 117 

God be upon thee; and never mind! to-morrow, 
please God, thou wilt be quite well," and so 
forth. People send me such odd dishes- 
some very good. Zeynib — Yussuf's wife — 
packed two calves' feet tight in a little black 
earthen pan, with a seasoning of herbs, and 
baked it in the bread oven, and the result 
was excellent. Also she made me a sort of 
small macaroni, extremely good. Now, too, 
we can get milk again, and Omar makes 
" kishta," alias clotted cream. 

My boat is not yet down stream ; it, and 
one other, are the last boats of the year, i 
hear the cataract is in very good order for 
shooting, and I know the cataract men will 
do their best. She will then go to Cairo, and 
return here, which will be an affair of six or 
seven weeks. My two hawagas (gentlemen) 
like to take their time. 

I am going to buy a horse cheap, for sixteen 
pounds. I cannot find a good donkey here, 
unless at a monstrous price. All the good 
donkeys are sold to pay taxes, and the im- 
ported ones at Keneh are very dear, so the 
horse will be best. I shall take one of Ab- 
dallah's men as sais to groom him and run 
by my side ; these men run like greyhounds, 
and don't mind how far. I wish I were well 
enough to go into the desert for a while. 



1 1 8 LAST LETTERS FROM EG YPT. 

Yussuf is so sorry I have not health, nor 
he money enough, to go together to India : 
when I told him I had been invited, he said 
he should like to go with me, and we could 
visit the Ulema and hear all about everything. 
There would be a chance of hearing something 
instructive. A Mufti from the Gama 7 1 Azhar 
in Cairo, and a Shereef to boot, is revered in 
the whole Muslim world, and with this gua- 
rantee one would hear all sorts of things. 

An American whom I saw tells me there 
is a very handsome illustrated edition of my 
letters published in America. I should like 
to see it. I saw in a catalogue of Williams 
and Norgate, to be sold cheap, a good edition 
of the "Arabian Nights" in Arabic. I should 
much like to have it, and I should also much 
. like to give Yussuf Lane's Arabic Dictionary. 
He is very anxious to have it, but I fear it 
is not published yet. I can't read the " Arabian 
Nights," but it is a favourite amusement to 
make one of the party read aloud ; a stray 
copy of " Kamar-es-Yeman and Sitt Boodoora" 
went all round Luxor, and was much coveted 
for the village soirees. But its owner departed, 
and left us to mourn over the loss of his 
MSS. 

I must tell yan a black standard of respecta- 
bility (it is quite equal to the English one of 



LUXOR. 119 

the gig, or the ham for breakfast). I was 
taking counsel with my friend Rachmeh, a 
negro, about Mabrook, and he urged me 
strongly to try and keep him, because he saw 
that the lad really loved me. " Moreover/' 
said he, " the boy is of a respectable family, 
for he told me his mother wore a cow's tail 
down to her heels (that, and a girdle to which 
the tail is fastened, and a tiny leathern apron 
in front, constituting her whole wardrobe), and 
that she beat him well when he told lies or 
stole his neighbour's eggs." Poor woman; I 
wish this abominable slave trade had spared 
her and her boy. What folly it is to stop 
the Circassian slave trade (if it is stopped) 
and to leave this. The Circassians take their 
own children to market, as a way of providing 
for them handsomely ; and both boys and girls 
like being sold to the rich Turks ; but the 
blacks and Abyssinians fight hard for their 
own liberty and that of their cubs. Mabrook 
swears that there were two Europeans in the 
party which attacked his village and killed he 
knew not how many, and carried him and 
others off. He was not stolen by Arabs, or 
by Barrabras, like our former servant, Hassan, 
but taken in "war" from his home by the 
seaside, a place called Bookee, and carried in 
a ship to Jeddah, and thence back to Kosseir 



120 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 



and Keneh, where he was sold. I must say 
that once here the slaves are happy and well 
off, but the waste of life and misery caused 
by the trade must be immense. 

The slaves are coming down the river by 
hundreds every week, and are very cheap — 
twelve to twenty pounds for a fine boy, and 
nine pounds and upwards for a girl. I heard 
that the last "gellab" (or slave dealer) who 
called, offered a woman and baby for anything 
anyone would give for them, on account of 
the trouble of the baby. By-the-bye, Mabrook 
displays the negro talent for babies, now that 
Achmet is gone, who scolded them and drove 
them out ; Mohammed's children, quite babies, 
are for ever trotting after " Maboo," as they 
pronounce his name, and he talks incessantly 
to them. He is one of the sons of Anak, and 
already as big and strong as a man. 

I wish I could hope to get to see you, but I 
fear I shall hardly be strong enough this summer 
for a long journey. ... I am drinking camel's 
milk again. Every morning the "naga" (she- 
camel) comes with her son, and gives a huge 
jug of warm foaming milk, better than that 
of any beast I know. Don't be uneasy about 
me as to care. Omar knows exactly what to 
do, and if I were to be ill enough to want 
more help, Yussuf would always sit up alter- 



LUXOR. \zx 

nate nights ; but it is not necessary. Arabs 
make no grievance about broken rest ; they 
don't " go to bed properly/' but lie down half 
dressed, and have a happy faculty of sleeping 
at odd times and anyhow, which enables them 
to wait on one day and night, without dis- 
tressing them as it distresses us; Omar con- 
tinues to protest against any more servants ; 
he says he and Mabrook are plenty, and cer- 
tainly I find it so. If a very good black 
woman comes in my way, perhaps I might 
take her. There are excellent black slave 
women, but they are not often to be had, 
only when a man dies or is ruined, or his wife 
forces him to sell his slave, or the like. I fear 
to take the responsibility of a girl who would 
be a savage, and want teaching everything 
besides. 

I am a special favourite with all the young 
lads ; they must not talk much before grown 
men, so they come and sit on the floor round 
my feet, and ask questions and advice, and 
enjoy themselves amazingly. Hobble-de-hoy- 
hood is very different here from what it is 
with us ; they care earlier for the affairs of the 
grown-up world, and are more curious and 
more polished, but lack the fine animal gaiety 
of our boys. The girls are much more gamin 
than the boys, and more romping and joyous. 



[22 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

It is very warm now. I, who worship 
" Amun Ra," love to feel the "Shems el 
Kebeer" (the big sun) in his glory. It is long 
since I have had letters. I long to know how 
you all are. 

Luxor, April 12th, 1867. 

This has been a bad winter even here ; I 
never knew such coughs and colds in Luxor. 
I am better at last, having begun to sleep 
again, and am fetching up arrears by sleeping 
all night and again in the day, and I hope I 
shall get stronger. 

J s visit was quite a "red" (festival), as 

the people said. When I got up on the morning 
she was expected, I found the house decked 
with palm branches and lemon blossoms, and 
the holy flags of Abu '1 Haggag waving over 
my balconies. The mosque people had brought 
them, saying all the people were happy to-day, 
because it was a fortunate day for me. I sup- 
pose if I had had a mind to testify, I ought to 
have indignantly torn down the banners which 
bear the declaration, " there is no God but 
God, and Mohammed is His Prophet." But 
it appeared to me that if Imauns and Muezzins 
could send their banners to decorate a Christian 
house, the Christian might manage to endure 
the kindness. Then there was fantasia on 
horseback, and all the " notables " to meet the 



LUXOR. 123 

boat, and general welcome and jubilation. 

Next day I went on with R and J in 

the steamer, and had a very pleasant time to 
Assouan and back, and they stayed another 
day here, and I hired a little dahabieh to go 
down with them to Keneh, where they stayed a 
day ; after which Sheykh Yussuf and I sailed 
back again to Luxor. As bad luck would 
have it, we had hot weather just the week 
they were here : since then it has been quite 
cool. 

J has left me her little black and tan 

terrier, called " Bob," a very nice little dog, 
but I can't hope to rival Omar in his affections. 
He sleeps in Omars bosom, and Omar spoils 
and pets him all day, and tells the people how 
the dog drinks tea and coffee and eats dainty 
food, and the people say, " Mashallah," whereas 
I should have expected them to curse the 
dogs father. The other day a scrupulous 
person drew back with an air of alarm from 
" Bob's " approach, whereupon the dog stared 
at him and forthwith plunged into Sheykh 
Yussuf s lap, from which stronghold he " yapped" 
defiance at whosoever should object to him. I 
never laughed more heartily, and Yussuf went 
into a fou rire. The mouth of the dog 
only is unclean, and Yussuf declares he is a 
very well-educated dog, and does not attempt 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



to lick : he pets him accordingly, and gives 
him tea in. his own saucer, only not in the 
cup. 

I am to inherit another better blackie from 
some people in Keneh : the funniest little 
fellow. I hope he will be as good and innocent 
as Mahrook. . I can't think why I go on ex- 
pecting so-called savages to be different from 
other people. Mabrook's simple talk about 
his village, and the animals and the victuals ; 
and how the men of a neighbouring village 
stole him in order to sell him for a gun (the 
price of a gun is a boy), but were prevented 
by a razzia of Turks, &c, who killed the first 
aggressors and took all the children — all this 

DO 

he tells just as an English boy might tell of 
bird-nesting. He has the same general notions 
of right and wrong ; and yet his tribe know 
neither bread nor any sort of clothes, nor 
cheese nor butter, nor have they even milk to 
drink, nor even the African beer (mereessah) ; 
and it always rains there, and is always deadly 
cold at night, so that without a fire they 
would die. They have two products of civili- 
zation — guns and tobacco, for which they pay 
in boys and girls, whom they steal I wonder 
where the country is ; it is called " Sowaghli," 
and the next people are " Mueseh " on the sea- 
coast, and it is not so hot as Egypt. It must 



LUXOR. T25 

be in the southern hemisphere. The new 

44 negrillon " is from Darfoor. Won't* M 

be amused by his attendants ? the Darfoor boy 
will trot after him, as he can shoot and clean 
guns, tiny as he is. I wish he may stay the 
winter here ; I really think he would enjoy it. 

The post here is dreadful ; I would not 
mind their reading my letters if they would 
only send them. I receive the Aihenceum 
very often, and have received reviews from you 
and been very grateful for them. I will write 
again soon. I suppose you will have heard 

from J about her excursion. What I liked 

best was shooting the cataract in a little boat ; 
it was fine " fantasia/' 

Luxor, April igf/t, 1867. 

Since the hot weather has come I am 
mending. I expect my boat up in two or 
three weeks, and next month I will start 
down the river; it will be time to make plans 
for next winter when I am in Cairo. Mustafa 
will go down with me, and, in return, will send 
my horse and sais in a boat with his two 
horses. I shall be very glad of his company, 
and it will be very convenient. Perhaps Yussuf 
will come too. 

I have been much amused lately by a new 
acquaintance, who, in romances of the last 



126 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

century, would be called an " Arabian sage." 
Sheykh" Abdurrachman lives in a village half 
a day's journey off, and came over to visit 
me and to doctor me according to the science 
of Galen and Avicenna. Fancy a tall, thin, 
graceful man, with a grey beard and liquid 
eyes, absorbed in studies of the obsolete kind, 
a doctor of theology, law, medicine and astro- 
nomy. We spent three days in arguing and 
questioning ; I consented to swallow a potion 
or two which he made up before me, of very 
innocent materials. My friend is neither a 
quack nor superstitious, and two hundred years 
ago would have been a better physician than 
most in Europe. Indeed, I would rather 
swallow his physic now than that of many a 
M.D. I found him like all the learned 
theologians I have known, extremely liberal 
and tolerant. You can conceive nothing more 
interesting and curious than the conversation 
of a man learned and intelligent, and utterly 
ignorant of all modern Western science. If I 
was pleased with him, he was enchanted with 
me, and swore by God that I was a Mufti 
indeed, and that a man could nowhere spend 
time so delightfully as in conversation with me. 
He said he had been acquainted with two 
or three Englishmen who had pleased him 
much, but that if all Englishwomen were like 



LUXOR. 



127 



me the power must necessarily be in our 
hands, for that my " akl " (brain, intellect) was 
far above that of the men he had known. He 
objected to our medicine, that it seemed to 
consist in palliatives, which he rather scorned, 
and aimed always at a radical cure. I told 
him that if he had studied anatomy he would 
know that radical cures were difficult of per- 
formance, and he ended by lamenting his 
ignorance of English or some European lan- 
guage, and that he had not learned our " Ilm " 
(science) also. Then we plunged into sympa- 
thies, mystic numbers, and the occult virtues 
of stones. &c, and I swallowed my mixture 
(consisting of liquorice, cummin, and soda) just 
as the sun entered a particular house and the 
moon was in some favourable aspect. He 
praised to me his friend, a learned Jew of 
Cairo. I could have fancied myself listening 
to Abu Sulyman of Cordova, in the days 
when we were barbarians and the Arabs were 
the learned race. There is something very 
winning in the gentle, dignified manners of all 
the men of learning I have seen here, and 
their homely dress and habits make it still 
more striking. I longed to photograph my 
Sheykh as he sat on my divan pulling MSS. 
out of his bosom to read to me the words of 
" El Hakeem Lokman," or to overwhelm me 



128 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

with the authority of some physician whose 
very name I had never heard. 

The hand of the government is awfully 
heavy upon us. All this week the people 
have been working night and day cutting 
their unripe corn, because 310 men are to 
go to-morrow to work on the railway below 
Sioot. This green corn is, of course, value- 
less to sell and unwholesome to eat ; so the 
magnificent harvest of this year is turned 
to bitterness at the last moment. Ffom a 
neighbouring village all the men are gone, 
and seven more are wanted to make up 
the corvee. The population of Luxor is 
1,000 males of all ages ; so you can guess 
how many strong men are left after 310 
are taken. 

The poor Copts are working away to-day 
at their 450 " rekahs " (prostrations), which 
take place on Good Friday : how tired and 
faint they will be to start to-morrow for the 
works, after fifty-five days' hard fasting, too. 

The new black boy who is coming to me 
is, I am told, a Coptic Christian, which is 
odd, as he is from Darfoor, which is a Moham- 
medan country. Mabrook suits me better 
and better : he has a very good, kind dis- 
position ; I have grown very fond of him. I 
am sure you will be pleased with his pleasant, 



LUXOR. 129 

honest face. I don't like to think too much 

about seeing you and M next winter, for 

fear I should be disappointed. If I am too 
sick and wretched I can hardly wish you to 
come, because I know what a nuisance it is 
to be with one always coughing and panting, 
and unable to do like other people. But if 
I pick up tolerably this summer I shall be 
very glad to see you and him once more. 

This house is falling sadly to decay, which 
produces snakes and scorpions. I sent for the 
" hawee," or charmer, who caught a snake, but 
who can't conjure the scorpions out of their 
holes. One of my fat turkeys has just fallen 
a victim, and I am in constant fear for my little 
dog Bob, only he is always in Omars arms. I 
think I described to you the festival of Sheykh 
Gibricel : the dinner, and the poets who impro- 
vised ; this year I had a fine piece of decla- 
mation in my honour. A real calamity is 
the loss of our good Maohn. The Mudir 
hailed him from his steamer to go to Keneh 
directly, with no further notice. We hoped 
some good luck for him, and so it would have 
been to a Turk. He is made " Nazer el Gism " 
over the poor people at the railroad work. He 
only gets two pounds five shillings per month 
additional, and has to keep a horse and a 
donkey, and to buy them, and keep a sais, 

K 



130 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 

and he does not know how to squeeze the 
fellaheen. It is true, " however close you skin 
an onion, a clever man can always peel it 
again/' which means that even the poorest 
devils at the works can be beaten into giving 
a little more ; but our dear Maohn, God bless 
him, will be ruined and made miserable by his 
promotion. I had a very woful letter from him 
yesterday. 

Thebes, May i$th, 1867. 
All the Christendom of Upper Egypt is in 
a state of excitement, owing to the arrival of 
the Patriarch of Cairo, who is now in Luxor. 
My neighbour, Mikaeel, entertains him, and 
Omar has been busily decorating his house, 
and arranging the illumination of his garden, 
and to-day is gone to cook the confectionary, 
he being looked on as the person best acquainted 
with the customs (terteeb) of the great. Last 
night the Patriarch sent for me, and I went to 
kiss his hand, but I won't go again. It was 
a very dull caricature of the thunders of the 
Vatican. Poor Mikaeel had planned that I 
was to dine with the Patriarch, and had bor- 
rowed my silver spoons, &c, &c, &c, in that 
belief. But the representative of St. Mark is 
furious against the American missionaries, who 
have converted some twenty Copts at Koos, 



THEBES. 131 

and he could not bring himself to be decently 
civil to a Protestant. I found a coarse-looking 
man seated on a raised divan, smoking his 
chibouk : on his right were some priests on a 
low divan ; I went up and kissed his hand, and 
was about to sit by the priests, but he roughly 
ordered a cawass to put a wooden chair off the 
carpet to his left, at a distance from him, and 
told me to sit there. I looked round to see 
whether any of my neighbours were present, 
and I saw the consternation in their faces, so 
not wishing to annoy them, I did as if I did 
not perceive the affront, and sat down and 
talked for half-an-hour to the priests, and then 
took leave. Mikaeel's servant brought a pipe, 
but the Patriarch bawled at him to take it 
away, and then poor Mikaeel asked his leave 
to give me a cup of coffee, which was granted. 
I was informed that the Catholics were (naas 
mesakeen) poor, inoffensive people, and that 
the Muslims at least were of an old religion, 
but that the Protestants ate meat all the year 
round, " like dogs," — " or Muslims," put in 
Omar, who stood behind my chair, and did not 
relish the mention of dogs and the " English 
religion " in one sentence. As I went the 
Patriarch called for dinner ; it seems he had 
told Mikaeel he would not eat with me. It is 
evidently "a judgment" of a most signal 

K 2 



132 LAST LETTERS FROM EG YPT. 

nature that I should be snubbed for the offences 
of missionaries, but it has caused some ill blood; 
the Cadee and Sheykh Yussuf, and the rest, 
who all intended to do the civil to the 
Patriarch, now won't go near him, on account 
of his rudeness to me. He has come up in a 
steamer, at the Pasha's expense, with a guard 
of cawasses, and, of course, is loud in praise 
of the Government, though he failed in getting 
the Mudir to send all the Protestants of Koos 
to the public works, or the army. 

From what he said before me about the 
Abyssinians, and, still more, from what he said 
to others about the English prisoners up there, 
I am convinced that the place to put the screw 
on is at the 11 batrarchane " (palace) at Cairo, 
and that the priests are at the bottom of that 
affair. He boasted immensely of the obedience 
and piety of " El Habbesh " (Abyssinia). 

Yesterday I heard a little whispered mur- 
muring about the money demanded by the 
" Father/' One of my Copt neighbours was 
forced to sell me his whole provision of cooking 
butter to pay his quota. This a little damps 
the exultation caused by seeing him so honoured 
by the Pasha. Keneh gave him 200 purses 
(600/.) I do not know what Luxor has given 
yet, but it falls heavy on the top of all the 
other taxes. One man who had heard that 



THEBES. 133 

he called the American missionaries " beggars," 
grumbled to me, " Ah, yes ! beggars, beggars ; 
they did not ask me for any money." I really 
do think that there must be something in this 
dread of the Protestant movement Evidently 
the Pasha is backing up the Patriarch, who keeps 
his church well apart from all other Christians, 
and well under the thumb of the Turks. It was 
pretty to hear the priests talk so politely of 
Islam, and curse the Protestants so bitterly. 
We were very nearly having a row about a 
woman, who formerly turned Moslimeh to get 
rid of an old blind Copt husband, who had 
been forced upon her, and was permitted to 
recant, I suppose in order to get rid of the 
Muslim husband in his turn. However, he 
said, " I don't care ; she is the mother of my 
two children, and whether she is Muslim or 
Christian she is my wife, and I won't divorce 
her, but Til send her to church as much as 
she likes." Thereupon the priests of course 
dropped the wrangle, much to the relief of 
Yussuf, in whose house she had taken up her 
quarters after leaving the church, and who was 
afraid of being drawn into a dispute. 

My new little Darfoor boy is very funny 
and very intelligent. I hope he will turn out 
well ; he seems well disposed, though rather 
lazy. Mabrook quarrelled with a boy belonging 



134 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



to the quarter close to us about a bird, and 
both boys ran away. The Arab boy is missing 
still, I suppose, but Mabrook was brought back 
by force, swelling with passion, and with his 
clothes most scripturally " rent." He had regu- 
larly " run amuck." Sheykh Yussuf lectured 
him on his insolence to the people of the 
quarter, and I wound up by saying, " Oh, my 
son ! whither then dost thou wish to go ? I 
cannot let thee wander about like a beggar, 
with torn clothes and no money, that the police 
may take thee and put thee in the army ; but 
say where thou desirest to go, and we will talk 
about it with discretion." It at once broke in 
upon him that he did not want to go anywhere, 
and he said, " I repent ; I am but an ox, bring the 
courbash, beat me, and let me go to finish cooking 
the Sitt's dinner." I remitted the beating, with 
a threat that if he bullied the neighbours again, 
he would get it at the police, and not from 
Omar's very inefficient arm. In half-an-hour 
he was as merry as ever. It was a curious 
display of negro temper, and all about nothing 
at all. As he stood before me he looked quite 
grandly tragic ; and swore he only wanted to 
run outside and die ; that was all ! 

I must get you to send me stuff to clothe 
my boys : not yet, but towards the winter ; 
stout unbleached calico, a horse cloth each, 



THEBES. t 35 

and a piece or two of strong print, and some 
coarse red flannel or serge. Little Darfoor, of 
course, is very chilly, and requires flannel 
shirts ; I have cut up some old clothes to 
make them. 

We have had a curiously cool season, but 
the winds have been infernal ; the heat only 
began yesterday, I have been very ailing 
indeed ; never ill enough to be laid up and 
never well enough to get out. I hope soon to 
feel better. I have never been in any danger 
all the winter, but I have never been at all 
well ; chiefly a feeling of horrid weakness and 
fatigue. I have never been well enough to 
get on the horse, which is provoking, but can't 
be helped. 

I wish you could have heard (and under- 
stood) my soirees, tf au clair de la lune," with 
Sheykh Abdurrachman and Sheykh Yussuf. 
How Abdurrachman and I wrangled, and how 
Yussuf laughed and egged us on ! Abdurrach- 
man was wroth at my want of faith in physic 
generally, as well as his in particular, and said 
I talked like an infidel, for had not God said, 
" I have made a medicine for every disease ?" 
I said, " Yes ; but he does not say that he has 
told the doctors which it is : and meanwhile I 
say, ' hekmet Allah' — God will cure — which 
can't be called an infidel sentiment." Then we 



136 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



got into alchemy, astrology, magic, and the 
rest ; and Yussuf vexed his friend by telling 
gravely stories palpably absurd. Abdurrach- 
man intimated that he was laughing at " el Ilm 
el Muslimeen," the science of the Muslims ; 
but Yussuf said, " What is the * Ilm el Musli- 
meen ? ' God has revealed religion through 
his prophets, and we can learn nothing new 
on that point ; but all other learning he has 
left to the intelligence of men, and the Prophet 
Mohammed said, ' All learning is from God, 
even the learning of idolaters/ Why then 
should we Muslims shut out the light, and 
want to remain ever like children. The learn- 
ing of the Franks is as lawful as any other/' 
Abdurrachman was too sensible a man to be 
able to dispute this, but it vexed him. 

I am tired of telling all the " plackereien " of 
our poor people, how 310 men were dragged 
off on Easter Monday with their bread and 
tools, how in four days they were all sent back 
from Keneh, because there were no orders 
about them, and made to pay their boat hire. 
Then in five days they were all sent, for again. 
Meanwhile the harvest was cut green, and the 
wheat is lying out unthrashed to be devoured 
by the birds and rats, and the men's bread was 
wasted and spoiled with the hauling in and out 
oi the boats. I am obliged to send camels 



THEBES. 137 

twenty miles for charcoal, because the Ababdeh 
won't bring it to market any more, the tax is 
too heavy. Butter, too, we have to buy se- 
cretly, none comes into the market. When I 
remember the lovely smiling landscape which 
I first beheld from my windows, swarming with 
beasts and men, and look at the dreary waste 
now, I feel the "foot of the Turk" heavy in- 
deed. Where there were fifty donkeys there 
is but one. Camels, horses, all are gone : 
not only the horned cattle, even the dogs are 
more than decimated, and the hawks and vul- 
tures seem to me fewer ; mankind has no food 
to spare for hangers-on. The donkeys are sold, 
the camels confiscated, and the dogs are dead 
(the one sole advantage). Meat is cheap, as 
everyone must sell to pay taxes, and no one 
has money to buy. I am implored to take 
sheep and poultry for what I will give. Excuse 
my being idle, I am still so shaky, although 
really better. 

Thebes, May 23rd, 1867. 
I have only time for a few words by Giafar 
Pasha, who goes early in the morning. The 
little Darfoor boy has been brought to me ; 
he is very intelligent. I hope he will do well ; 
he has quite lost his atir of solemnity, and 
seems very happy and inclined to be affec- 
tionate, I think; I have had to scold him for 



133 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 



dirtiness and bad language, in which he in- 
dulged most profusely; but he is quite childish, 
and I hope will soon lose it. My boat arrived 
all right. She brought me all sorts of things ; 
the books and toys were very welcome. The 
latter threw little Darfoor into ecstasies, and 
he got into disgrace for " playing with the Sitt," 
instead of minding some business in hand. I 
fear I shall spoil him, he is so extremely en- 
gaging, and such a baby. He is still changing 
his teeth, so cannot be more than eight ; at first 
I did not like him, and feared he was sullen, 
but it was the usual " khoss " (fear), the word 
that is always in one's ears, and now that is 
gone, he is always coming hopping in to play 
with me. He is extremely intelligent, and has 
a pretty baby nigger face. The Darfoor people 
are, as you know, an independent and brave 
people, and by no means " savages." I can't 

help thinking how pleased R would be 

with the child. He asked me to Qfive him the 
picture of the English Sultaneh out of the Illus- 
trated London News, and has stuck it inside 
the lid of his box. 

I am better, as usual, since the heat has set 
in, the last six days. I shall leave this in a 
week, I think, and Mustafa and Yussuf will go 
with me to Cairo. Yussuf was quite enchanted 
with your note to him ; his eyes glistened, and 



THEBES. 139 

he took a stout envelope to keep it carefully. 
Omar said such a letter is like a Hegab (amu- 
let), and Yussuf said, " Truly it is, and I could 
never have one with more ' baraka ■ (blessing, 
or more like the virtue which went out of 
Jesus), if ever I wore one at all ; I will never 
part with it." 

We had a very pretty festival for the Sheykh, 
whose tomb you have a photograph of, and I 
spent a very pleasant evening with Sheykh 
Abd el Mootooal, who used to scowl at me, 
but now we are " like brothers/' I found him 
very clever, and better informed than any Arab 
I have met, who is quite apart from all Franks. 
I was astonished to find that he " abondait dans 
mon sens " in my dispute with Sheykh Abdur- 
rachman, and said that it was the duty of 
Muslims to learn what they could from us, and 
not to stick to the old routine. 

On Sunday the Patriarch snubbed me, and 
w r ould not eat with me, and on Monday a 
" walee " (saint) picked out tit-bits for me with 
his own fingers, and went with me inside the 
tomb. The Patriarch has made a blunder with 
his progress. He has come ostentatiously as 
the protege and prdneur of the Pasha, and he 
has "eaten" and beaten the fellaheen, and want- 
ed to maltreat a woman for mentioning divorce. 
The Copts of Luxor have had to pay forty 



I4Q LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

pounds for the honour of his presence, besides 
no end of sheep, poultry, butter, &c. If I were 
of a proselytising mind, I could make converts 
of several whose pockets and backs are smart- 
ing, and the American missionaries will do it. 
Of course the Muslims sympathize with the 
converts to a religion which has no " idols/' 
and no monks, and whose priests marry like 
other folk, so they are the less afraid. I hear 
there are fifty Protestants at Koos, and the 
Patriarch was furious because he could not 
beat them. Omar very civilly cooked a grand 
dinner for him last night for Mikaeel, a 
neighbour of ours, and the eating was not 
over till two in the morning. Our govern- 
ment should manage to put the screw on 
him about the Abyssinian prisoners. I dare 
not say w T ho told me all that I heard, but 
he was a truthful man, and a Christian. 
The Patriarch answered me sharply when I 
asked about the state of religion in Abyssinia, 
that " they were lovers of the faith, and his 
obedient children/ ' Whenever there is mis- 
chief among the Copts, the priests are at the 
bottom of it. If the Patriarch chose, those 
people would be let go ; and so it would be, 
but he hates all Europeans bitterly. 

I should like to have the Revue des Deux 
Mondes, of all things, but I don't know how it is 



BENISOUEF. 141 

to come here, or what the postage would cost. 
They send nothing but letters above Cairo by 
post, as all goes on mens backs. " ' Inshallah ! ' 
I am the bearer of good news," cries the post- 
man, as he flings the letter over the wall. 
I am so glad of getting news to you quick. 
Giafar Pasha came here like a gentleman, 
alone, without a retinue ; he is on his way from 
two years in the Soodan, where he is absolute 
Pasha. He is much liked and respected, and 
seems a very sensible and agreeable man, quite 
unlike any Turkish big-wig I have seen. Great 
potentate as he is, he made Yussuf, Mustafa, and 
Abdallah sit down, and was extremely civil and 
simple in his manners. I believe he is a real 
Turk, and not a memlook like the rest. I will 
write again soon. Now you will soon know that 
I am much better, and all is prospering with me. 

Benisouef, June 30th, 1867. 

I write on the chance that this may go safe 
by post, that you may not think me lost. I left 
Luxor on the 31st May, got to Sioot (half way) 
in a week, and have ever since been battling 
with an unceasing furious north and north-east 
wind. I feel like the much travelled Odysseus, 
and have seen " villages and men ; " unlike 
him, however, " my companions " have neither 
grumbled nor deserted, though it is a bad busi- 



142 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



ness for them, having received their money at 
the rate of about twenty days' pay, for which 
they must take me to Cairo. They have eaten 
all, and are now obliged to stop and make bread 
here, but they are as good-humoured as if all 
were well. 

My fleet consisted of my dahabieh, flag ship; 
tender, a "kyasseh" for my horse and " sais," 
wherein were packed two extremely poor shriv- 
elled old widows, going to Cairo to see their 
sons, now in garrison there, lots of hard bread, 
wheat, flour for all the lads of " my family" 
studying at " Gama ? 1 Azhar," besides queer little 
stores of long-hoarded money in my box for those 
" megowareen." Don't you wish you could 

provide for M with a sack of bread, a basket 

of onions, and one pound sixteen shillings ? 

The handsome brown Sheykh el Arab Hassan 
wanted me to take him, but I knew him to be 
a "fast" man, and asked Yussuf how I could 
avoid it without breaking the laws of hospi- 
tality, so my " father," the old Shereef, told 
Hassan that he did not choose his daughter 
to travel with a wine-bibber, and a frequenter 
of loose company. 

Under my convoy sailed two or three little 
boats with family parties. One was very pretty, 
whose steersman was a charming little fat girl 

o o 

of five years old. All these hoped to escape 



BENISOUEF. 



being caught and worked by the way, by be- 
longing to me, and they dropped off at their 
several villages, 

I am very tolerably well, better than when I 
sailed, in spite of the wind. We have had no 
heat this year till to-day ; I mean compared to 
other years. 

Poor Reis Mohammed had a very bad attack 
of ophthalmia, and sat all of a heap, groaning all 
day and night, and protesting " I am a Muslim/' 
equivalent to " God's will be done." At one 
place I was known, and had a lot of sick to 
see, and a civil man killed a sheep and regaled 
us all with meat and fateereh. The part of the 
river in which we were kept is made cheerful 
by the custom of the hareem being just as free 
to mix with men as Europeans, and I quite 
enjoyed the pretty girls' faces, and the gossip 
with the women who came to fill their water 
jars and peep in at the cabin windows, which, 
by the way, they always asked leave to do. 

The Sheykh al Hawarii gave me two sheep, 
which are in the "kyasset" with four others, 
all presents, and which Omar intends you to 
eat at Cairo. The Sheykh is very anxious to 
give you an entertainment at his palace, if you 
come up the river, with horse riding, feasting, 
and dancing girls. In fact I am charged with 
many messages to " el kebeer " or the master. 



144 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

I must send this off now, as my men are 
coming back with their bread. 

Cairo, July St/i, 1867. 
I arrived to-day, after thirty-eight days' 
voyage ; one month of ceaseless, furious wind. 
My poor men had a hard pull down against 
it. However, I am feeling better than when 
I left Luxor, and was quite fairly, spite of dust 
and wind. 

Boulak, July iZth. 

Your letter just arrived is an unspeakable 
relief to me, after the great anxiety I have 
been in ever since the news of your illness, 
which I found on arriving here. I know I can 
write nothing more to please and comfort you 
than that I am a good deal better. 

It has been intensely hot, and the wind very 
worrying, but I am better, and I do not feel 
nearly so weak as I did. I am anchored here 
in the river at my old quarters. I have not yet 
been ashore, owing to the hot wind and dust, 
which of course are far less troublesome on the 
river. I have seen very few people, and have 
but one neighbour, in a boat anchored near me, 
a very bewitching Circassian, the former slave 
of a rich Pasha, now married to a very respect- 
able dragoman, and staying in his boat for a 



BOULAK. 145 

week or two. She is young and pretty, and 
very amiable, and we visit each other often, 
and get on very well indeed. She is a very 
religious little lady, and was much relieved 
when I assured her it was not part of my daily 
devotion to curse the prophet and revile the 
noble Koran. 

My eight " megowareen " (students of Gama 
'1 Azhar) are coming as soon as there is a good 
moon to read the Koran here, for my benefit, 
one night, and to have a good dinner of boiled 
mutton. We shall kill one of the Luxor sheep 
for them. I told the young Shereef if he 
found any Cape Town Malay to bring him 
with them. 

I am extremely glad that the English have 
given a hearty welcome to the " Ameer el 
Moorneneen " (Commander of the Faithful) ; 
it will have a good effect in all Mussulman 
countries. A queer little Indian from Delhi, 
who had got converted to Islam, and spent 
four years at Mecca acting as dragoman to 
his own countrymen, is now settled at Karnac. 
I sent for him, and he came shaking in his 
shoes. I asked why he was afraid. " Oh, 
perhaps I was angry about something, and he 
was my - rayah/ and I might have him beaten." 
I cried out at him, " Ask pardon of God, oh 
man ! How could I beat thee any more than 

L 



146 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 



thou couldst beat me ? Have we not laws ? 
and art thou not my brother, and the 1 rayah ' 
of our Queen, as I am and no more ? " 
" Mashallah ! " exclaimed the six or elg*ht fella- 
heen who were waiting for physic, in prodigious 
admiration and wonder ; " and did we not tell 
thee that the face of the Sitt brings good for- 
tune and not calamity and stick ?" I found 
the little Indian had been a hospital servant 
in Calcutta, and was practising a little physic 
on his own account. So I rave him a few 
drugs especially for bad eyes, which he knew 
a good deal about, and we became great friends, 
and he was miserable when I left, and would 
have liked me to have taken him as a volun- 
teer servant. If I had not already the two 
black boys I think I should have given him 
a trial. 

I have come to a curious honour. " Ich bin 
bet lebendigcm Leibe besungen " — (my praises 
have been sung). Several parties of real 
Arabs came with their sick on camels from 
above Edfou. I asked at last what brought 
them, and they told me that a shaer (bard or 
poet) had gone about singing my praises, as 
how the daughter of the English was a flower 
on the heads of the Arabs, and those who 
were sick should go and smell the perfume of 
the flower and rejoice in the brightness of the 



BOULAK. 147 

light (nooreen) — my name. Rather a high- 
flown way of mentioning the " exhibition" of a 
black dose. But we don't feel that a man 
makes a fool of himself here when he is 
romantic in his talk even about an old woman, 

I hope J told you how the Luxor folk 

received her and R- — - — , and how the people 
of the mosque sent the holy flags to decorate 
my house all over in honour of the joy of her 
arrival, and to show that they wished us every 
blessing from God. 

It is no use to talk of the state of things 
here ; all classes are suffering terribly under the 
fearful taxation, the total ruin of the fellaheen 
and the destruction of trade. My head work- 
men of last year came to see me, and to 
express their joy that I had had such good 
luck with the boat, and that no evil had hap- 
pened to her. My grocer is half ruined by 
the " improvements " making u u Finstar de 
Paris " — - long military straight streets cut 
through the heart of Cairo. The owners are 
expropriated, and there is an end of it. Only 
those who have half a house left are to be 
pitied, because they are forced to build a new 
front to the street on a Frankish model, which 
renders it uninhabitable to them and unsaleable. 

The river men are excited about the crews 
gone to Paris, for fear they should be forcibly 

L 2 



I 



148 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

detained by the Sultaneh Franzaweeh. I 
assured them that they will all come back 
safe and happy, with a good backsheesh from 
him. Many of them think it a sort of degra- 
dation to be taken for the Parisians to stare 
at like an " anteeka," a word which here means 
what our people call a " curiosity.'' 

I go on very well with my two boys. Ma- 
brook washes very well, and acts as marmiton. 
Darfoor is housemaid and waiter in his very tiny 
way. He is only troublesome as being given 
to dirty his clothes in an incredibly short time ; 
but he is sweet-tempered and clever. His 
account of the " Schulwesen " (school system) 
of Darfoor is curious. How when the little 
boy has achieved excellence he is carried 
home in triumph to his fathers house, who 
makes a festival for the master and boys. 
I suppose you will be surprised to hear that 
the Darfoor " niggers " can nearly all read and 
write. I have a beautiful " Guide of the 
Faithful," written in Darfoor long ago. It 
was given me by the Cadi at Luxor. Poor 
little Darfoor apologised to me for his ignor- 
ance ; he was stolen, he said, w T hen he had 
only just begun to go to school. I wish an 
English or French servant could hear the 
instructions given by an alim here to serving 
men. Flow he would resent them ! " When 



BOULAK. T 49 

thou hast tired out thy back do not put thy 
hand behind it," {i.e., don't shirk the burthen). 
" Remember that thou art not only to obey, 
but to please thy master, whose bread thou 
eatest;" and much more of the like. In 
short, a standard of religious obedience and 
fidelity fit for the highest Catholic idea of the 
u religious life." Upon the few who seek in- 
struction it does have an effect — but of course 
they are few ; and those who don't seek it 
themselves get none. It is curious to see how 
all children here are left utterly without any 
religious instruction. I don't know whether it 
is in consequence of this that they grow up 
so very devout. 

A seems to doubt whether he will come, 

and to fear that M will be bored. Was 

I different to other children and young people, 
or has the race changed ? When I was of 

M 's age I should have thought anyone 

mad who talked of a Nile voyage as possibly 
a bore, and would have embarked in a washing 
tub if anyone would have offered to take me, 
and that with rapture. All romance and all 
curiosity too seems dead and gone. Even 
old and sick, and not very happily placed, I 
still cannot understand the idea of not being 

amused and interested. If M wishes to 

see the Nile let him come, because it is worth 



ISO LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

seeing ; but if he is only to be sent because 
of me, let it alone. I know I am oppressive 
company now, and am apt, like Mr. Wood- 
house in " Emma," to say " Let us all have 
some gruel." 

We know nothing at Boulak of a prohibition 
of gunpowder, only at this moment four Euro- 
peans are popping away incessantly at Embabeh 
just opposite. 

Evidently the Pasha wants to establish a 
right of search on the Nile. That speech 
about slaves he made at Paris shows that. With 
so many in his hareem, several slave regiments, 
and gangs on all his sugar plantations, this 
speech is wonderful. My lads are afraid to go 
out alone for fear of being snapped up by cavasses 
and taken to the army or the sugar works. 

You will be sorry to hear that your stalwart 
friend Hassan has had fifty pair of courbash 
(i.e., fifty blows on each foot-sole), and had to 
pay six pounds. He was taking two donkeys 
to Shepherd's hotel before sunrise for a French 
lady and gentleman, to go to the Pyramids, 
when a cavass met him, seized the donkeys, 
and on Hassan's refusal to give them up, spat 
on the side-saddle and reviled Hassan's own 
hareem, and began to beat him with his cour- 
bash. Hassan got impatient, took the cavass 
up in his arms and threw him on the ground, 



BOULAK. 151 

and went on. Presently four cavasses came 
after him, seized him and took him to the 
Zaptieh (police office), where they all swore he 
had beat them, torn their clothes, and robbed 
one of an imaginary watch — all valued at 
twenty-four pounds. After the beating he was 
carried to prison in chains, and there sentenced 
to be a soldier. Some one, however, interfered 
and settled the affair for six pounds. Hassan 
sends you his salaam. 

I hope the horrid rumour you mention about 
Maximilian is false. God grant his poor wife 
may die as she is, without returning to this life 
at all. To me nothing is more depressing than 
the Sheffield inquiry. How dare we talk of 
savages, forsooth, and abuse the Abyssinians 
after that ? If such is the result of freedom 
and Christian civilisation, I begin to be recon- 
ciled to the Turkish rule. It is less dreadful 
to see men suffer oppression than to see them 
so deeply degraded, and to see educated men 
tacitly approving such corruption. 

Last night was very pretty — all the boats 
starting for the Moolid of Seyd el Bedawee 
at Tanta. Every boat had a sort of pyramid 
of lanterns, and the Derweeshes chaunted, and 
the worldly folks had profane music and singing, 
and I sat and looked and listened, and thought 
how many thousand years ago just the same 



152 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

thing was going on in honour of Bubastis, 
There is to be a great illumination, by which 
the Cairenes are ordered to show their joy at 
their masters return home. 

I feel as if I had told you nothing like what 
I want to say. I can't find words, and writing 
is rather choky work, especially when one feels 
what one does not know how to write. 

Boulak, yth August, 1867. 
My pretty neighbour has gone back into 
the town. She was a nice little woman, and 
amused me a good deal. I see that a good, 
respectable Turkish hareem is an excellent 
school of useful accomplishments — needlework, 
cookery, &c. But it must be father a bore to 
have to educate little girls for her husband's 
use, as my friend's " lady " did. I observed 
that she did not care a bit for the Pasha, by 
whom she had a child, but was extremely fond 
of " her lady," as she politely called her ; also 
that, like every Circassian I ever knew, she 
regarded being sold as quite a desirable fate, 
and did not in the least complain of being 
stolen, or seem sorry for her parents, as the 
negroes always do. I believe that if we do 
stop the Circassian slave trade it will be a great 
hardship to them. The African is quite another 
matter. 



BOULAK. 153 

The heat has been prodigious, but I am a 
good deal better, having got up a good appetite 
again ; and I am getting fatter ; but it has been 
too hot to move. Yesterday the Nile had risen 
above ten cubits, and the cutting the kalig took 
place. The river is pretty full now, but they 
say it will go down fast this year. I don t know 
why. The high wind keeps on, and now it 
has blown three months without more than six 
hours' intermission. They say such a year was 
never known. It is very disagreeable, but the 
river looks very beautiful now, blood-red and 
tossed into waves by the north wind fighting 
the rapid stream. 

I don't know how this country is to go on ; 
there is no money, and I hear the debt is 
enormous. No one has been paid, and Daira 
bonds are at discount. This war has ruined 
the country. There is now an additional tax 
on all animals, and a poll-tax to include women 
and children is impending. You cannot con- 
ceive the distress and discontent ; and, as if 
in mockery, a huge illumination is ordered to 
be ready to celebrate the masters return. 

Two sailors of mine went to Paris in the 
dahabieh (Nile boat) for the Empress, and are 
just come back. When I see them I expect I 
shall have some fun out of their account of their 
journey. Poor Adam's old father died of grief 



154 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



at his son's going ; nothing would persuade him 
that Adam would come back safe, and having 
a heart complaint, he died. And now the lad 
is come back well and with fine clothes, but 
is much cut up, I hear, by his father's death: 
I hear they are dreadfully shocked by the 
dancing and by the French women of the lower 
class generally. They sit in the coffee-shops 
like shaers (poets), and tell the wonders of 
Paris to admiring crowds. They are enthusi- 
astic about the courtesy of the French police, 
who actually did not beat them when they got 
into a quarrel, but scolded the Frankish man 
instead, and accompanied them back to the 
boat quite politely. The novelty and triumph 
of not being beaten was quite intoxicating. 

There is such a curious sight of a crowd of 
men carrying huge blocks of stone up out of 
a boat. One sees exactly how the stones were 
carried in ancient times ; they sway their bodies 
all together like one great lithe animal with 
many legs, and hum a low chant to keep time. 
It is quite unlike any carrying heavy weights 
in Europe. 

It is getting dusk and too windy for candles, 
so I must say good-night and eat the dinner which 
Darfoor has pressed on me two or three times. 
The little fellow is much improved ; he is a 
pleasant little creature, so lively and so gentle. 



BOULAK. 155 

It is washing day. I wish you could see 
Mabrook squatting out there, lathering away 
at the clothes with his superb black arms. He 
is a capital washer and a fair cook, but an utter 
savage. 

Boulak, 2%th August, 1867. 
There is great excitement here now ; all 
government employes are cut down one-fifth 
of their pay, and half are to be dismissed. 
Every artizan to pay twenty-five tariff piastres 
for leave to pursue his trade, and the hated 
" Firdeh " (poll tax) to be reimposed, and, they 
say, to be extended to women and children. 
No one has had a farthing from government 
for nine months. The poorer employes are in 
rags and really starving ; and the Jews will not 
lend on the hopes of their arrears ever being 
paid up. 

I received a present from Luxor yesterday — 
a basket of onions and a bag of lentils. Is 
not that Egyptian with a vengeance ? And 
I hear that a man I knew there has killed 
himself on account of money he owed to a 
company. I never knew an Arab do such a 
thing before. 

There is a pretty white house behind mine 
at Luxor. The owner, a Copt, is going to 
open an hotel there. I daresay it will answer 
very well. 



1 56 LAST LETTERS FROM EG YPT. 

Bob, the dog, is growing old ; he was very- 
troublesome while Omar was away at Alex- 
andria for a week, and took to being perversely 
dirty. He hates everybody except Omar and 
Reis Mohammed, and is very peevish, but I 
respect his indomitable pluck in attacking any 
number of Arab dogs of any size. He has 
been bitten again, and the doctor sewed him 
up, and he seems not a bit the worse. 

Omar is so enchanted by your kind message, 
that he swears by Allah that whenever you 
come to Alexandria his wife shall kiss your 
hand. You can hardly understand Egyptian 
ideas enough to feel the force of the sentiment. 

I have a great want ; if you have an oppor- 
tunity of sending, if not I will buy at Alex- 
andria. I want a supply of powdered opium 
and of ipecacuanha. My reputation for curing 
dysentery leads to a constant call for these ; 
but they must be perfectly dry and well stop- 
pered, or they get mouldy on the way. Your 
people don't fasten their bottles well ; tell them 
corks are of no use in Egypt ; they dry away 
to nothing ; all should be in stoppered bottles. 

There is such a group all stitching away at 
the new big sail — Omar, the reis, two or three 
volunteers, old sailors of mine, students of 
theology, &c, and little Darfoor. I am very 
fond of little Darfoor ; he is the jolliest little 



BOULAK. 157 

fellow, and has a perfectly imperturbable temper 
and plenty of pluck. He is idle and dirty, as 
most small boys are, but very intelligent. If 
I die I think you must have that tiny black 
boy over ; he is such a merry little soul, I am 
sure you would love him, and he is really very 
handy and clever. Mabrook is too mere a 
savage, and will do very well here as he is 
big and strong and a very fair cook ; but the 
little Darfoor is quite a civilized being, and 
has a charming temper, and he seems very 
small to be left alone in the world ; he is 
about eight, judging by his teeth. 

I hear nothing 1 more of M 's coming here. 

I hope he is not of the faction of " Les 
Ennuyes " of this generation. I am more and 
more of Omars opinion, who said with a 
pleased sigh as we sat on the deck of the 
Urania, under some lovely palm-trees in the 
bright moonlight, moored far from all human 
dwellings — " How sweet are the quiet places 
of the world ! " 

I wonder when Europe will drop the absurd 
delusion about Christians being persecuted by 
Muslims. It is absolutely the other way,— 
here at all events. The Christians know that 
they will always get backed by some Consul or 
other, and it is the Muslims who go to the wall 
invariably. The old brute of a Patriarch is 



i S3 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

resolved to continue his persecution of the con- 
verts, and I was urged the other day by a 
Sheykh to go to the " Sheykh-ul-Islam " himself 
and ask him to demand equal rights for all 
religions, which is the law, on behalf of these 
Coptic protestants. Everywhere the Ulema 
have done what they could to protect them, 
even at Sioot, where the Americans had caused 
them a good deal of annoyance on a former 
occasion. No one in Europe can conceive how 
much the Copts have the upper hand in the 
villages. They are backed by the government, 
and they know that the Europeans will always 
side with them. I have a strong suspicion that 
it is much the same in Turkey, if one knew the 
truth, 

BoiTLAK, \%th September \ 1867. 

You may imagine how glad I was to receive 
your last letter, from which I conclude that 
M— is coming here, though you say nothing 
about yourself. If M— — really comes, let me 
know by what boat, that I may send Omar to 
meet him, for I well remember the horrid deso- 
lation of being landed in Alexandria without 
any help whatever. 

My notion is for M- — — to see all Cairo well, 
first, and then to start for four or five months, 
so as to go to Wady Halfeh (the second 



BOAT u MARIE LOUISE: 



159 



cataract) and not come down too soon for me. 
Omar is crazy with delight at the idea of 

M 's arrival, and Reis Mohammed keeps 

planning what men to take who can make " fan- 
tasia/' and not ask too much wages. 

Omar begs me to give you and Sitti R — — his 
best "salaam," and his assurance that he will take 
great care of the young master and " keep him 
very tight." He objects to my taking another 
servant, and says he can manage for us all very 
well with the boys, and a handy sailor to wash 
the clothes. I think M — - — will be delighted 
with Mabrook. The young cannibal really cooks 
very fairly now under Omar's directions, and 
washes very well, but he is beyond belief un- 
couth and utters the wildest howls now that his 
voice is grown big and strong like himself 
Moreover, he " won't be spoken to," as our ser- 
vants say, but he is honest, clean, and careful. 
I should not have thought any human creature 
could remain so completely savage in a civilized 
community. I rather respect his " savage hau- 
teur? especially as it is combined with truth and 
honesty. 

Boat " Marie Louise," 17 th October, 1867. 
You must not be wroth with me because I 
have not written for a long time. I have been 
ill, but am much better Omar will go 



160 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

down on Sunday if possible, to Alexandria, to 

meet M . 

My boat is being painted, but is nearly 
finished ; as soon as it is done he will move me 

back and go I got out of my boat into 

a little cangia, but it swarmed with bugs 
and wasps, and was too dirty, so I moved into 
a good boat of Mohammed Omar's, a respect- 
able dragoman, and hope to be back in my 
own by Sunday. But, heavens ! I got hold of 
the Barber himself, turned painter ; and as the 
little cangia was moored alongside the Ura- 
nia in order to hold all the mattresses, carpets, 
&c, I was his victim. First, it was a request 
for three pounds to buy paint. " None but the 
best of paint is fitting for a noble person like 
thee, and that thou knowest is costly, and I am 
thy servant and would do thee honour." " Very 
well," say I, " take the money and see, oh man, 
that the paint is of the best, or thy backsheesh 
will be bad also." Well, he begins and then 
rushes in to say : - - Come, oh Bey, oh Basha ! 
and behold the brilliancy of the white paint, 
like milk, like glass, like the full moon ! " I go 
and say, " Mashallah ! but now be so good as 
to work fast, for my son will be here in a few 
days, and nothing is ready." Fatal remark! 
" Mashallah Bismillah ! may the Lord spare 
him, may God prolong thy days, let me advise 



no AT "MARIE LOUISE: 1 i6r 

thee how to keep the eye from him, for doubt- 
less thy son is beautiful as a memlook of 1,000 
purses. Remember to spit in his face when he 
comes on board, and revile him aloud that all 
the people may hear thee, and compel him to 
wear torn and dirty clothes when he goes out : 
and how many children hadst thou, and our 
master, thy master? " &c, &c. "Shukr Allah! all 
is well with us/' I say ; " but by the Prophet, 
paint, oh Maalim (exactly the German Meister), 
and do not break my head any more." But I 
was forced to take refuge here at a distance 
from Hagg Alees tongue. Read the story of 
the Barber, and you will know exactly what 
Maalim Hagg' Alee is. Also just as I got out 
of my boat and he had begun, the painter whom 
I had last year, and with whom I was dissatisfied, 
went to the Sheykh of the painters and per- 
suaded him to put my man in prison for working 
too cheap— that was at daybreak. So I sent 
up my reis to the Sheykh to inform him that if 
my man did not return by next day at daybreak, 
I would send for a European painter and force 
the Sheykh to pay the bill. Of course my man 
did come. 

My steersman Hassan, and a very good man 
Hoseyn, who can wash, and is generally nice 
and pleasant, arrived from El Bastowee a few 
days ago, and are waiting here till I want them. 

M 



1 62 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

Poor little ugly black Hassan has had his house 
burnt down in his village, and lost all the clothes 
which he had bought with his wages ; they were 
very good clothes, some of them, and were a 
heavy loss. He is my reis's brother, and a 
very good man indeed ; clean and careful and 
quiet, better than my reis even — they are a 
respectable family. Big stout Hazazin owes me 
two hundred piastres which he is to work out, 
so I have still five men and a boy to get. I 
hope a nice boy, called " Hederbee" (the lizard) 
will come. They don't take pay till the day 
before we sail, except the reis and Abdeel 
Sadig, who are permanent. But Hassan and 
Hoseyn are working away as merrily as if they 
were paid. People growl at the backsheesh, 
but they should also remember what a quantity 
of service is got for nothing here, and for which 
oddlv enough no one dreams of asking back- 
sheesh. Once a week we shift the anchors, for 
fear of their silting over, and six or eio-ht men 
work for an hour ; then the mast is lowered 
— twelve or fourteen men work at this, — and 
stopped again — as many more work, and nobody 
gets a farthing. 

The other day Omar met in the market an 
" aqreeable merchant," an Abvssinian fresh from 
his own country, which he had left because of 
the tyranny of Kassa, alias Todoros, the Sultan. 



BOA T " MARIE LOUISE." 163 

The merchant had brought his wife and hareem 
to live here. His account is that the mass of 
the people are delighted to hear that the English 
are going to conquer them, as they hope, and 
that every one hates the king except two or 
three hundred scamps who form a bodyguard. 
He had seen the English prisoners, who, he says, 
are not ill treated, but certainly in danger, as 
the king is with difficulty restrained from killing 
them by the said scamps, who fear the revenge 
of the English ; also that there is one woman 
imprisoned with the native female prisoners. 
Hassan the donkey boy, when he was a mar mi- 
ton in Cairo, knew the Sultan Todoros : he 
was the only man who could be found to inter- 
pret between the king of Abyssinia and Mo- 
hammed Ali Pasha, whom Todoros had come 
to visit. This merchant also expressed a great 
contempt for the Patriarch, and for their 
" Matraam " or Metropolitan, whom the English 
papers call the " Abuna." " Abuna" is Arabic 
for " our Father." The man is a Cairene Copt, 
and was a hanger-on of the English or rather 
German missionaries here, and he is more than 
commonly a hypocrite. Pray what was all that 
nonsense about the Armenian Patriarch of Jeru- 
salem writing to Todoros ? what could he have 
to do with it ? The Coptic Patriarch, whose 
place is Cairo, could do it if he were forced. 



M 2 



i64 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

At last my boat is finished, so to-morrow 
Omar will clean the windows, and on Saturday 
move in the cushions, &c., and me, and on 
Sunday go down to Alexandria. 

Well, I must go to bed, and this will go 
to-morrow. I hear the dreadful voice of Hagg' 
Alee, the painter, outside, and will retire before 
he gets to the cabin door, for fear he should 

want to bore me again. I do hope M will 

enjoy his journey ; everyone is anxious to 
please him. The Sheykh of the Hawara sent 
his brother to remind me to stop at his " palace " 
near Girgeh, that he might make a " fantasia " 

for my son. So M will see real Arab 

riding, and jereed, and sheep roasted whole, 
and all the rest of it The Sheykh is the last 
of the great Arab chieftains of Egypt, and has 
thousands of fellaheen and a large income. 

Boat " Urania/' Boulak, October 21s f, 1867. 
I have just received your letter of the 10th 
inst Many thanks. As you said that the 
Sumatra was to sail on the 10th, I hurried 
Omar off yesterday morning, thinking she might 
arrive in ten days. Mabrook is a capital cook, 
under Omar s orders ; little Darfoor is waiter, 
and Omar will be housemaid, and chaperon 
M . I suppose he will not be very 



BOAT " URANIA," BOULAK. 165 

I quite forgot to thank you for the boxes 
and all their contents. My slaves are enchanted 
at all that the "great master" sent. One piece 
and a quarter of that capital brown calico was 
forthwith cut out by Haggi Hannah into twelve 
baggy breeches and two " gellabiehs " (the long 
Arab shirts), which last are gone to be dyed 
blue, as is the custom here, after they are sewn. 
Darfoor hugged the horsecloth in ecstacy that 
he should never again be cold at night. I also 
presented five yards to poor little Hassan, my 
steersman, whose clothes were all burnt. The 
waistcoats of printed stuff, and the red flannel 
shirts, are gone to be made, so my boys will 
be like Pashas this winter, as they told the 
reis. I regret the grand silk skirt you sent, 
but all the rest is perfection. One cannot buy 
a scrap of anything here, nothing but shoddy 
in all its branches. 

My reis is awfully perturbed about the evil 
eye. " Thy boat, Mashallah, is such as to 
cause envy from beholders ; and now when they 
see a son with thee, Bismillah ! like a flower, 
verily I fear. I fear greatly from the eye of 
the people." We have brought a tambourine 
and a darabouka, and are on the look-out for 
a man who can sing well, so as to have " fan- 
tasia" on board. I gave the boat ten men last 
year for the English travellers, but I shall take 



1 66 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

only eight for myself. I had to make a new 
sail this year and buy a boom. Our sail was 
ragged and too small, and the boom not tall 
enough. So we made a new mainsail, and the 
best of the old made a new mizen and com- 
pleted the awnings, which were too few. I 
expect the Urania will fly with her great white 
wing. 

I hear that an old Copt of high character 
in Koos, many years in government employ, 
was put in chains and hurried off within twenty 
minutes to Fazoghlu,* with two of his friends, 
for no other crime than having turned Pres- 
byterian. This is quite a new idea in Egypt, 
and we all wonder why the Pasha is so anxious 
to " brush the coat " of the Copt Patriarch. 
We also hear that the people up in the Saeed 
are running away by wholesale, utterly unable 
to pay the new taxes and do the work exacted. 
Even here the beating for this years taxes is 
awful. 

Boulak, November ya, 1867. 

M arrived on Friday week, and is as 

happy and well as can be. Little Blackie's 
amusement at the boy is boundless ; he grins 
at him all the time he waits at table ; he marvels 



* See page 174. 



BOULAK. 



167 



at his bathing, at his much walking out shooting, 
at his knowing no Arabic. 

The dyke burst the other day up at Bahr 
Yussuf, and we were nearly all swept away by 
the furious rush of water. My little boat was 
upset while three men in her were securing 
the anchor, and two of them were nearly 
drowned, though they swim like fish ; all 
the dahabiehs rattled and pounded ; and in 
the middle of the fracas, at noonday, a steamer 
ran into us quite deliberately. I was rather 
frightened when the steamer bumped us and 
carried away the iron supports of the awning ; 
and they cursed our fathers into the bargain, 
which I thought needless. However, the 
" Shorl el Basha " is an answer to all. The 
English have fallen into such litter contempt 
here that one no longer gets decent civility 
from anything in the " Meeree." 

Novembei' iqth, 1867. 

Here we are still at Cairo. M is extremely 

well and very happy, and I am sure so am I. 
I feel it like a new life to me to have the boy 
with me ; he is so kind and thoughtful. . . . 

O has lent us a lovely little skiff, which 

I have had repaired and painted, so M is 

set up for shooting and boating. Darfoor calls 
him the " son of a crocodile/' because he loves 



i68 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



the water ; and generally delights in him hugely, 
and all my men are enchanted with him. You 
must not grudgfe him to me this winter, even 
if it is waste of time. 

Thebes, December zoth, 1867. 
We arrived here all safe three davs ago. 

M is as blooming as a rose, and is getting 

fat with early hours and a quiet life. We think 
of starting- for Xubia directlv after Christmas 
Day, which we propose to keep here. We 
have lovelv weather. Among" other calamities 
the cock of your gun was knocked off, but Ali 
Kamooree has got it to mend (by special per- 
mission from the Maohn, who gave me a 
" teskereh "), but I fear he will not make an 

elegant job of it. M and C are 

going with a friend of my friends, a Beda- 
wee, to shoot. I hope among the Ababdeh 
in Xubia he will get some gazelle shooting. 
I shall stop at Syaleh to visit the Sheykh's 

mother, and with them M could go for some 

days into the desert. As to crocodiles, In- 
shallah, we will eat their hearts, and not they 

ours. You may rely on it that M is " on 

the head and in the eye " of all my crew, and 
will not be allowed to bathe in k ' unclean places." 
Reis Mohammed stopped him at Gebel Abu '1 
Foda. You would be delighted to see how 



THEBES. 169 

different the boy looks ; all his clothes are too 
tight now, across the chest especially. ... He 
says he is thoroughly happy, and that he never 
was more amused than when with me, which 
I think flattering. He is beginning to pick up 
a little Arabic, and has got a fancy to stay on 
with me and learn French, Arabic, and Turkish. 
For many reasons I think it would be a good 
thing for him. . . . 

Half of the old house at Luxor fell down 
into the temple beneath, six days before 
I arrived here ; so there is an end of the 
" Maison de France/' I suppose. It might 
be made very nice again at a small expense, 
but probably the consul will not do it, and 
certainly I shall not unless I want it again. 
Nothing remains solid but the small front 
rooms and the big hall with the two rooms off 
it. All the part I lived in is gone, and the 
steps, so one can't get in. Luckily Yussuf had 
told Mohammed to move my little furniture to 
the part which is solid, having a misgiving of 
the rest. 

We have the most divine w r eather, like a 
beautiful summer at home. Sheykh Yussuf 
has the most beautiful baby, an exact miniature 
of himself. He is in a manner my godson, 
being named " Noor-ed-Deen, Hisham Abu '1 
Haggag" ; to be called " Noor " like me, 



176 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT 

I conclude. The mudir of Keneh beat all 
the Sheykhs el Beled awfully — one died under 
the stick, and the Sheykh of the Ababdeh 
two hours after, of resentment at the insult 
of being ordered to be beaten — for it was not 
done : nevertheless the mudir failed to get the 
money for the taxes, and has been turned off 
and replaced by a new man. Nobody has any 
money. I don't know where it has gone : the 
misery of the government employes in Cairo 
was terrible : no pay for from nine to twelve 
months. 

On board the " Urania," January 1868. 
Your letter of the 10th December most 
luckily came on to Edfoo by the American 
Consul-General, who overtook us there in his 

steamer and gave me a lunch. M was as 

usual up to his knees in a distant swamp, trying 
to shoot wild geese. Now we are up close to 
Assouan, and there are no more marshes : but 
en revanche there are quails and " kata," the 
beautiful little sand grouse. I eat all that 

M shoots, which I find very good for me ; 

and as to M- , he has got back his old, round, 

boyish face : he e'ats like an ogre, walks all day, 
sleeps like a top, bathes in the morning, and has 
laid on flesh so that his clothes won't button. 
At Esneh we fell in with handsome Hassan, 



ASSOUAN. 



171 



who is now Sheykh of the Ababdeh, as his 
elder brother died. He gave us a letter to his 
brother at Syaleh, up in Nubia, ordering him to 

get up a gazelle hunt for M , and I am to 

visit his wife. I think it will be pleasant, as 
the Bedouin women don't veil or shut up, and 
to judge by the men ought to be very handsome. 
Both Hassan and Abu Goord, who was with him, 
preached the same sermon as my learned friend 
Abdurrachman had done at Luxor — " why, in 
God's name, I left my son without a wife," 
&c. They were sincerely shocked at such in- 
difference to a sons happiness. 

Assouan, Saturday evening, Ramadan. 

I have no almanac, but you can know the 
date by your own red pocket book, which deter- 
mined the beginning of Ramadan at Luxor, 
this year. They received a telegram fixing it 
for Thursday, but the authorities said that they 
were sure the astronomers in London knew 
best, and made it Friday. To-morrow we 
shall make our bargain, and next day go up the 
cataract, Inshallah, in safety. The water is 
very good, as Jesus the black pilot tells me. 
He goes to the second cataract and back. I 
intend to stay nearly two months up in Nubia. 
The weather here is perfect heaven now. We 
have been most lucky in a lovely mild winter 



172 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



hitherto : about 7 2° by day and 6o° by night 
We are very comfortable, having a capital crew, 
who are all devoted to M : likewise Ma- 
brook has conceived a great affection for him. 
The Sheykh of the Ababdeh has promised to 
join us if he can, when he has convoyed some 
400 Bashi-bazooks up to Wady Halfeh, who are 
being sent up because the English are in 
Abyssinia. 

Luxor, April 2M1, 186S. 

I received your letter of the 27th March a 
few days ago, and was really too weak to write, 
but the heat set in three days since, and took 

away my cough, and I feel much better. M 

also flourishes in the broil, and protests against 
moving yet. He speaks a good deal of Arabic, 
and is friends with every one. It is " Salaam 
aleykoom ya maris " on all sides. He has got 
as far as learning his letters, and I hope will 
learn more. You would rejoice to see his fat 
rosy cheeks and increased breadth and vigour. 
I never beheld such a change for the better 
in any human being. 

A Belgian has died here, and his two slaves, 
a very nice black boy and an Abyssinian girl, 
got my little varlet, Darfoor, to coax me to take 
them under my protection, which I have done, 
as there appeared to me a strong probability 



LUXOR. 173 

that they would be " annexed " by a Copt who 
is French consular agent at Keneh. I believe 
the Belgian has left money for them, which of 
course they would never get without some one 
to look after it ; and so I have got Ramadan, 
the boy, with me, and shall take the girl when I 
go, and carry them both to Cairo, settle their 
business, and let them present a sealed-up book 
which they have to their consul there, according 
to their master s desire, and then marry the girl 
to some decent man. I have left her in Musta- 
fa's hareem till I go : it was better so, 

I enjoyed Nubia immensely, and long to go 
and live with the descendants of a great Ras 
who entertained me at Ibreem, and who said, 
like Ravenswood : " Thou art come to a fallen 
house, and there is none to serve thee left but 
me/ 5 It was a paradise of a place, and the 
Nubian had the grand manners of a very old, 
proud nobleman. I had a letter to him from 
Sheykh Yussuf. 

Since I wrote the above it has turned quite 
chilly again, so we agreed to stay till the heat 

really begins. M is so charmed with 

Luxor that he does not want to go. I wish you 
could see your son barelegged and footed, in a 
shirt and a pair of white Arab drawers, rushing 
about with the "fellaheen." He is everybody's 
'brother" or "son," and gets even " Salaam 



174 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 

aleykoom." I only want to get to Cairo to see 
after a sort of teacher for him : he picks up a 
little talk very fast. 

Minieh, May 1868. 

We are just arriving at Minieh, whence the 
railway will take letters quickly. We dined at 
Keneh and at Sioot with some friends, and had 
"fantasia." You would have been amused to 
hear the girl who came to dance at Esneh 

lecture M about evil ways, but she was 

an old friend of mine, and gave good and 
sincere advice. 

M is stronger and better than ever I 

saw him. I shall look out for some decent 
young Armenian at Cairo to teach him Arabic 
and French. 

Every one is delighted about Abyssinia. 
" Thank God our Pasha will fear the English 
more than before, and the Sultan also." And 
when I lamented the expense, they all exclaimed, 
" Never mind the expense, it is worth more than 
ten millions to you ; your faces are whitened and 
your power enlarged before all the world ; but 
why don't you take us on your way back ? " 

I saw a very interesting man at Keneh, a 
Copt who has turned Presbyterian, and has 
induced a hundred others at Koos to do like- 
wise : an American missionary is their minister. 
The pervert was sent off to the Soudan by the 



MINI EH. 175 

Patriarch, but brought back. He is a splendid 
old fellow, and I felt I looked on the face of a 
Christian martyr, a curious sight in the nineteenth 
century : the calm, fearless, rapt expression was 
like what you see in a noble old Italian picture, 
and he had that perfect absence of " doing pious" 
which shows the undoubting faith. He and 
the Mufti, also a noble fellow, sparred about 
religion in a jocose and friendly tone which 
would be quite unintelligible in Exeter Hall. 
When he was gone the Mufti said, " Ah ! we 
thank them, for though they know not the truth 
of Islam, they are good men, and walk straight, 
and would die for their religion : their example 
is excellent; praise be to God for them." 

Well, I must say good-bye. I send you an 
Arab story like " Tannhauser." 

Arab Story resembling " Tannhauser." — ■ 
There was once a man who loved a woman 
that lived in the same quarter. But she was 
true to her husband, and his love was hopeless, 
and he suffered greatly. One day as he lay 
on his carpet sick with love, one came to him 
and said, " Oh, such-a-one, thy beloved has 
died even now, and they are carrying her out 
to the tomb." So the lover arose and fol- 
lowed the funeral, and hid himself near the 
tomb ; and when all were gone, he broke it 
open and uncovered the face of his be- 



1 76 LAST LETTERS FROM EG YPT. 

loved and looked upon her, and passion over- 
came him, and he kissed her repeadedly on 
the mouth and eyes. But he went back 
to the city and to his house in great grief 
and anguish of mind, and his sin troubled 
him. So he went to a Cadee, very pious, and 
learned in the noble Koran, and told him his 
case, and said : " Oh my master, the Cadee, can 
such a one as I obtain salvation and the for- 
giveness of God ? I fear not." And the Cadee 
gave him a staff of polished wood, which he 
held in his hand, and said, " Who knoweth the 
mercy of God and his justice, but God alone ? 
take then this staff, and stick it in the sand beside 
the tomb where thou didst sin, and leave it the 
night, and go next morning, and come and tell 
me what thou shalt find, and may the Lord 
pardon thee, for thy sin is great." And the 
man went and did as the Cadee had desired, 
and went again at sunrise, and behold, the staff 
had sprouted, and was covered with leaves and 
fruit ; and he returned and told the Cadee what 
had happened, and the Cadee replied, " Praise 
be to God the merciful, the compassionate ! " 

Cairo, July yd, 1868. 

M is gone to Alexandria, and Omar 

nearly cried. " I seem to feel how dull we 
shall be without him when he goes away," 



CAIRO, 177 

said he. Darfoor expresses his intention of 

eoine with M . " Thou must orive me to the 

young man backsheesh, because I have plenty 
of sense and shall tell him what to do." That 
is the small rascal's sauce. Terence's slaves 
are true to the life here. You would have 
stared to see old Achmet Agha Abdel Sadig, 
a very good friend of ours at Assouan, coaxing 
and patting the "weled" (boy), when he dined 
here the other day, and laughing immoderately 

at M 's nonsense. He is one of the M.P.'s 

for Assouan, and a wealthy and much respected 
man in the Saeed. The Abyssinian affair is 
an awful disappointment to the Pasha ; he had 
laid his calculations for something altogether 
different, and is furious. The Coptic clergy 
are ready to murder us. The Arabs are all 
in raptures. " God bless the English general ! 
he has frightened our Pasha." 

Giafar Pasha invited M to Khartoom, 

and proposed to send a party to fetch him, 
from Koorosko, on the Nile. He is governor 
of the Soudan, and a very quiet man, who does 
not " eat the people." He is the only Turk 
I think highly of. 

We have settled to go to Beyroot on Satur- 
day, by a Russian steamer. I am very weak, 
but perhaps the change may do me good. I 
take Omar and little Darfoor. My men are 

N 



178 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 

delighted with the chair you have sent, and 
say they can carry me like a Sultan. 

Cairo, October 22?ia, 1868. 
The unlucky journey to Syria almost cost 
me my life. The climate is absolute poison 
to consumptive people. In ten days after I 
arrived the doctor told me to settle my affairs, 
for I had probably only a few days to live, 
and certainly should never recover. However, 
I got better, and was carried on board the 
steamer, but am too weak for anything. We 
were nearly shipwrecked coming back, owing 
to the Russian captain having his bride on 
board and not minding his ship. We bumped 
and scraped and rolled very unpleasantly. At 
Beyroot the Sisters of Charity wouldn't nurse a 
Protestant, nor the Prussians a non-Lutheran. 
But Omar and little Blackie nursed me better 
than Europeans ever do. Little Darfoor was 
as sharp about the physic as a born doctor's 
boy, when Omar was taking his turn of sleep. 
I did not like the few Syrians I saw at all. 

Cairo, Xovember 6th, 1868, 
I am sure you will rejoice to hear that I 
at last feel really better. Luckily I found two 
bottles of cod-liver oil, and have taken one 



ASSOUAN. i 79 

with good effect, as well as porter. I shall start 
up the river in a few days. 

Assouan, January 2$th, 1869. 

We have been here ten days, and I find the 
air quite the best for me. . . . 

I have got a most excellent young reis for my 
boat, and a sailor who sings like a nightingale ; 
indeed he is not a sailor at all, but a professional 
Cairo singer, who came with me for fun. He 
draws crowds to hear him, and at Esneh the 
congregation prayed for me in the mosque that 
God might reward me for the pleasure I had 
provided for them. Fancy desiring the " prayers 
of this congregation for the welfare of the lady 
who gave me her opera-box last Saturday." 
If prayers could avail to cure I ought to get 
well rapidly. At Luxor Omar killed the sheep 
he had vowed, and Mustafa and Mohammed 
each killed two, as thank-offerings for my life, 
and all the derweeshes held two great " zikrs " 
in a tent pitched beside the boat, and drummed 
and chanted and called on the Lord for two 
whole nights ; and every man in my boat fasted 
Ramadan severely, from Omar and the crew to 
the little boys. I think Darfoor was the most 
meritorious of all, because he has such a Gar- 
gantuan appetite, but he fasted his thirty days 
bravely, and rubbed his little nose in the dust 

N 2 



t8o LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



energetically in prayer. He is the best and 
merriest of all little boys, and I love him 
dearly. He is clever, brave, and honest, and 
very affectionate and careful to me. As to 
Omar, he is the same as ever — the best of 
nurses, and pleasantest person about one. . . . 
Omar must get a black girl and teach her to 
iron and to wait on me ; and the needlework 
I can quite do without ; — anything better than 
troublesome women. 

On Christmas Day I was at Esneh, and it 
was warm and fine, and I made fantasia and 
had the girls to dance. Zehneb and Hillaleah 
claim to be my own " ghawazee," so to speak — 
my " Ballerine da Camera/' and they did their 
best. How I did long to transport the whole 
scene before your eyes — Ramadan warbling 
intense love songs and beating a tiny tam- 
bourine, while Zeyneb danced before him and 
gave the pantomime to his song ; and the 
sailors and girls and respectable merchants sat 
pele-mele all round the deck, and the player 
on the rabab drew from it a wail like that of 
Isis for dead Osiris. I never quite know 
whether it is now or four thousand years ago, 
or even ten thousand, when I am in the 
dreamy intoxication of a real Egyptian fan- 
tasia ; nothing is so antique as the ghawazee — 
the real dancing-girls. They still are subject 



ASSOUAN. 



1S1 



to religious ecstasies of a very curious kind, no 
doubt inherited from the remotest antiquity. 
Ask any learned pundit to explain to you the 
" Zar " — it is really curious. 

Now that I am too ill to write I feel sorry 
that I did not persist and write on the beliefs 
of Egypt in spite of your fear that the learned 
would cut me up, for I honestly believe that 
knowledge will die out with me which few 
others possess. You must recollect that the 
learned know books, and I know men, and 
what is more difficult, women. 

The cataract is very bad this year, owing to 
want of water in the Nile, and to the shameful 
conduct of the Maohn here. The cataract men 
come to me and pray me to " give them my 
voice " before the Mudir, which I will do. 
Ala Eddeen Bey seems a decent fellow, and 
perhaps will remove the rascal, whose robberies 
on travellers are notorious, and his oppression 
of the poor savages who pull up the boats 
odious. Two boats have been severely damaged, 
and my friend the reis of the cataract (the one 
I threatened to shoot last year, and who has 
believed in me ever since) does not advise me 
to go up, though he would take me for nothing, 
he swears, if I wished. So as the air is good 

here, and M is happy with his companions, 

I will stay here. 



LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT. 



I . meant to discharge my men, but I have 
grown so fond of them (having so good a set), 
that I can't bring myself to save 20/. by turning 
them adrift when we are all so happy and com- 
fortable, and the poor fellows are just marrying 
new wives with their wages. Forgive my 
scrawl, for I am very weak all over, fingers 
and all. 

Best love to , and to my darling R . 

Three boats have little girls of five to eight on 
board, and I do envy them so ! 

Cairo, June i$th, 1869. 

Do not think of coming here as you fear the 
climate. Indeed, it would be almost too painful 
to me to part from you again; and, as it is, I can 
wait patiently for the end among people who are 
kind and loving enough to be comfortable with- 
out too much feeling of the pain of parting. 
The leaving Luxor was rather a distressing 
scene, as they did not think to see me again. 

The kindness of all the people was really 
touching, from the Cadi who made ready my 
tomb among his own family, to the poorest 
Fellaheen. 

Omar sends you most heartfelt thanks, and 
begs that the boat may remain registered at 
the Consulate in your name for his use and 
benefit. The Prince of Wales has appointed 



CAIRO. 183 

him his own dragoman. But he is sad enough, 
poor fellow ; all his prosperity does not console 
him for the loss of " the mother he found in the 
world." Mohammed at Luxor wept bitterly, 
and said, " Poor I, my poor children, poor all 
the people ! " and kissed my hand passionately, 
and the people at Esneh asked leave to touch 
me "for a blessing," and every one sent delicate 
bread and their best butter and vegetables and 
lambs. They are kinder than ever now that 
I can no longer be of any use to them. 

If I live till September I will go up to Esneh, 
where the air is softest and I cough less, and 
live in a house there, and send down the boat 
to be let. I would rather die among my own 
people in the Saeed, than here. 

Can you thank the Prince of Wales for Omar, 
or shall I write ? He was most pleasant and 
kind, and the Princess too. She is the most per- 
fectly simple-mannered girl I ever saw. She 
does not even try to be civil like other great 
people, but asks blunt questions, and looks at 
one so heartily with her clear, honest eyes, that 
she must win all hearts. They were more con- 
siderate than any people I have seen, and the 
Prince, instead of being gracious, was, if I may 
say so, quite respectful in his manner : he is 
very well bred and pleasant, and I am sure has 
a kind heart. 



1 84 LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, 

My sailors were so proud at having the honour 
of rowing him in our own boat, and of singing 
to him. I had a very good singer in the boat. 

Please send some little present for my reis : 
he is such a good man : he will be pleased at 
some little thing from you. He is half Turk, 

and seems like a whole one. M will tell 

you all about us. 

Good-bye for the present. I won't say any 
more. 



This was my mothers last letter; the end 
came more rapidly than any one expected, and 
she died at Cairo on the 14th July, 1 869. 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



Off the Scilly Isles, July 2\th, 1862. 
When I wrote last Sunday, we put our pilot 
on shore and went down Channel. It soon 
came on to blow, and all night was squally and 
rough. Captain on deck all night. Monday 
I went on deck at eight. Lovely weather, 
but the ship pitching as you never saw a ship 
pitch — bowsprit under water. By two o'clock 
a gale came on ; all ordered below. Captain 
left dinner, and about six a sea struck us on 
the weather side, and washed a good many 
unconsidered trifles overboard, and stove in 
three windows on the poop ; nurse and four 

children in fits ; Mrs. T and babies afloat, 

but good-humoured as usual. Army-surgeon 
and I picked up children and bullied nurse, 
and helped to bale cabin. Cuddy window stove 
in, and we were wetted. Went to bed at nine, 



1 88 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



could not undress, it pitched so, and had to call 
doctor to help me into cot ; slept sound. The 
gale continues. My cabin is water-tight as to 
big splashes, but damp and dribbling. I am 
almost ashamed to like such miseries so much. 
The forecastle is under water with every lurch, 
and the motion quite incredible to one only 
acquainted with steamers. If one can sit this 
ship, which bounds like a tiger, one should sit 
a leap over a haystack. Evidently I can 
never be sea-sick ; but holding on is hard 
work, and writing harder. 

Life is thus : — Avery, my cuddy boy, brings 

tea for S , and milk for me at six. S 

turns out ; when she is dressed I turn out, 
and sing out for Avery, who takes down my 
cot, and brings a bucket of salt water, in 
which I wash with vast danger and difficulty, 
get dressed, and go on deck at eight. Ladies 
not allowed there earlier. Breakfast solidly at 
nine. Deck again; gossip; pretend to read. 
Beer and biscuit at twelve. The faithful Avery 
brings mine on deck. Dinner at four. Do a 
little carpentering in cabin, all the outfitters' 
work having broken loose. I am now in the 
captain's cabin, writing. We have the wind, as 
ever, dead against us ; and as soon as we get 
unpleasantly near Scilly we shall tack and stand 
back to the French coast, where we were last 



OFF THE SCILL Y ISLES. 189 

night. Three soldiers able to answer roll-call, 
all the rest utterly sick ; three middies helpless. 
Several of crew, ditto. Passengers very fairly 
plucky, but only I and one other woman, who 
never was at sea before, well. The food on 
board our ship is good as to meat, bread, and 
beer; everything else bad. Port and sherry of 
British manufacture, and the water with an in- 
credible borachio, essence of tar ; so that tea 
and coffee are but derisive names. 

To-day the air is quite saturated with wet, 
and I put on my clothes damp when I dressed, 
and have felt so ever since. I am so glad I 
was not persuaded out of my cot ; it is the 
whole difference between rest and holding- on 
for life. No one in a bunk slept at all on 
Monday night, but then it blew as heavy a gale 
as it can blow, and we had the Cornish coast 
under our lee. So we tacked and tumbled all 
night. The ship being new, too, has the rig- 
ging all wrong ; and the confusion and disorder 
are beyond description. The ship's officers 
are very good fellows. The mizen is entirely 
worked by the " young gentlemen so we 
never see the sailors, and, at present, are not 
allowed to go forward. All lights are put out 
at half-past ten, and no food allowed in the 
cabin ; but the latter article my friend Avery 
makes light of, and brings me anything when 



190 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

I am laid up. The young soldier-officers bawl 
for him with expletives, but he says, with a 
snigger, to me, kk They'll just wait till their 
betters, the ladies, is looked to." I will write 
again some day soon, and take the chance of 
meeting a ship ; you may be amused by a little 
scrawl, though it will probably be very stupid 
and ill-written, for it is not easy to see or to 
guide a pen while I hold on to the table with 
both legs and one arm, and am first on my 
back and then on my nose. Adieu, till next 
time. I have had a good taste of the humours 
of the Channel. 

July 29th, Four Bells, />., two o'clock p.m. 

When I wrote last, I thought we had had 
our share of contrary winds and foul weather. 
Ever since, we have beaten about the bay with 
the variety of a favourable gale one night for 
a few hours, and a dead calm yesterday, in 
which we almost rolled our masts out of the 
ship. However, the sun was hot, and I sat 
and basked on deck, and we had morning ser- 
vice. It was a striking sight, with the sailors 
seated on oars and buckets, covered with signal 
flags, and with their clean frocks and faces. 
To-day is so cold that I dare not go on deck, 
and am writing in my Black Hole of a cabin, 
in a green light, with the sun blinking through 



BA V OF BISCA Y. 



191 



the waves as they rush over my port and 
scuttle. The captain is much vexed at the 
less of time. I persist in thinking it a very 
pleasant, but utterly lazy life. I sleep a great 
deal, but don't eat much, and my cough has 
been bad ; but, considering the real hardship of 
the life — damp, cold, queer food, and bad drink 
— I think I am better. When we can get past 
Finisterre, I shall do very well, I doubt not. 

The children swarm on board, and cry un- 
ceasingly. A passenger-ship is no place for 
children. Our poor ship will lose her character 
by the weather, as she cannot fetch up ten 
days' lost time. But she is evidently a race- 
horse. We overhaul everything we see, at a 
wonderful rate, and the speed is exciting and 
pleasant ; but the next long voyage I make, 
111 try for a good wholesome old "monthly" 
tub, which will roll along on the top of the 
water, instead of cutting through it, with the 
waves curling in at the cuddy skylights. We 
tried to signal a barque yesterday, and send 
home word " all well;" but the brutes under- 
stood nothing but Russian, and excited our 
indignation by talking " gibberish " to us ; 
which we resented with true British spirit, as 
became us. 

It is now blowing hard again, and we have 
just been taken right aback. Luckily, I had 



IQ2 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

lashed my desk to my washing-stand, or that 
would have flown off, as I did off my chair. 
I don't think I shall know what to make of 
solid ground under my feet. The rolling and 
pitching of a ship of this size, with such tall 
masts, is quite unlike the little niggling sort 
of work on a steamer — it is the difference be- 
tween grinding along a bad road in a four- 
wheeler, and riding well to hounds in a close 
country on a good hunter. I was horribly tired 
for about five days, but now I rather like it, 
and never know whether it blows or not in the 
night, I sleep so soundly. The noise is beyond 
all belief; the creaking, trampling, shouting, 
clattering ; it is an incessant storm. We have 
not yet got our masts quite safe ; the new wire- 
rigging stretches more than was anticipated (of 
course), and our main-topmast is shaky. The 
crew have very hard work, as incessant tacking 
is added to all the extra work incident to a 
new ship. On Saturday morning, everybody 
Avas shouting for the carpenter. My cabin was 
flooded by a leak, and I superintended the 
baling and swabbing from my cot, and dressed 
sitting on my big box. However, I got the 
leak stopped and cabin dried, and no harm 
done, as I had put everything up off the floor 
the night before, suspicious of a dribble which 
came in. Then my cot frame was broken by 



AT SEA. 193 

my cuddy boy and I lurching over against 
S 's bunk, in taking it down. The car- 
penter has given me his own, and takes my 
broken one for himself. Board ship is a famous 
place for tempers. Being easily satisfied, I get 
all I want, and plenty of attention and kind- 
ness ; but I cannot prevail on my cuddy boy to 
refrain from violent tambourine-playing with a 
tin tray just at the ear of a lady who worries 
him. The young soldier-officers, too, I hear 
mentioned as " them lazy gunners/' and they 
struggle for water and tea in the morning long 
after mine has come. We have now been ten 
days at sea, and only three on which we could 
eat without the " fiddles" (transverse pieces of 
wood to prevent the dishes from falling off). 
Smooth water will seem quite strange to me. 
I fear the poor people in the forecastle must be 
very wet and miserable, as the sea is constantly 
over it, not in spray, but in tons of green 
water. 

^rd Aug. — We had two days of dead calm, 
then one or two of a very light, favourable 
breeze, and yesterday we ran 175 miles with 
the wind right aft. We saw several ships, 
which signalled us, but we would not answer, 
as we had our spars down for repairs and looked 
like a wreck, and fancied it would be a pity to 
frighten you all with a report to that effect. 

o 



[94 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

Last night we got all right, and spread out 
immense studding-sails. We are now bowling 
along, wind right aft, dipping our studding-sail 
booms into the water at every roll. The 
weather is still surprisingly cold, though very 
fine, and I have to come below quite early, out 
of the evening air. The sun sets before seven 
o'clock. I still cough a good deal, and the bad 
food and drink are trying. But the life is very 
enjoyable ; and as I have the run of the charts, 
and ask all sorts of questions, I get plenty of 

amusement. S is an excellent traveller ; 

no grumbling, and no gossiping, which, on 
board a ship like ours, is a great merit, for 
there is ad nauseam of both. 

Mr. is writing a charade, in which I 

have agreed to take a part, to prevent squab- 
bling. He wanted to start a daily paper, but 
the captain wisely forbade it, as it must have 
led to personalities and quarrels, and suggested 
a play instead. My little white Maltese goat 
is very well, and gives plenty of milk, which is 
a great resource, as the tea and coffee are 
abominable. Avery brings it me at six, in a 
tin pannikin, and again in the evening. The 
chief officer is well-bred and agreeable, and, 
indeed, all the young gentlemen are wonderfully 
good specimens of their class. The captain is 
a burly foremast man in manner, with a heart 



AT SEA. 195 

of wax and every feeling of a gentleman. He 
was in California " hide droghing " with Dana, 
and he says every line of " Two Years before 
the Mast" is true. He went through it all 
himself. He says that I am a great help to 
him, as a pattern of discipline and punctuality. 
People are much inclined to miss meals, and 
then want things at odd hours, and make the 
work quite impossible to the cook and servants. 
Of course, I get all I want in double-quick time, 
as I try to save my man trouble ; and the car- 
penter leaves my scuttle open when no one else 
gets it, quite willing to get up in his time of 
sleep to close it, if it comes on to blow A 
maid is really a superfluity on board ship, as 
the men rather like being aux petits soins. 
The boatswain came the other day to say that 
he had a nice carpet and a good pillow ; did I 
want anything of the sort ? He would be 
proud that I should use anything of his. You 
would delight in Avery, my cuddy man, who is 
as quick as " greased lightning/' and full of fun. 
His misery is my want of appetite, and his 
efforts to cram me are very droll. The days 
seem to slip away, one can't tell how. I sit on 
deck from breakfast at nine, till dinner at four, 
and then again till it gets cold, and then to bed. 
We are now about 100 miles from Madeira, 
and shall have to run inside it, as we were 

o 2 



196 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

thrown so far out of our course by the foul 
weather. 

gtk Aug.- — Becalmed, under a vertical sun. 
Lat. 1 7 , or thereabouts. We saw Madeira at 
a distance like a cloud ; since then, we had 
about four days' trade wind, and then failing or 
contrary breezes. We have sailed so near the 
African shore that we get little good out of the 
trades, and suffer much from the African cli- 
mate. Fancy a sky like a pale February sky 
in London, no sun to be seen, and a heat 
coming, one can't tell from whence. To-day, 
the sun is vertical and invisible, the sea glassy 
and heaving. I have been ill again, and obliged 
to lie still yesterday and the day before in the 
captain's cabin ; to-day in my own, as we have 
the ports open, and the maindeck is cooler than 
the upper. The men have just been holyston- 
ing here, singing away lustily in chorus. Last 
night I got leave to sling my cot under the 
main hatchway, as my cabin must have killed 
me from suffocation when shut up. Most of 
the men stayed on deck, but that is dangerous 
after sunset on this African coast, on account 
of the heavy dew and fever. They tell me 
that the open sea is quite different ; certainly, 
nothing can look duller and dimmer than this 
specimen of the tropics. The few days of trade 
wind were beautiful and cold, w r ith sparkling 



AT SEA. 197 

sea, and fresh air and bright sun ; and we 
galloped along merrily. 

We are now close to the Cape de Verd Is- 
lands, and shall go inside them. About lat. 4 
N. we expect to catch the S.E. trade wind, 
when it will be cold again. In lat. 24 , the day 
before w T e entered the tropics, I sat on deck 
in a coat and cloak ; the heat is quite sudden, 
and only lasts a week or so. The sea to-day is 
littered all round the ship with our floating 
rubbish, so we have not moved at all. 

I constantly long for you to be here, though 
I am not sure you would like the life as well 
as I do. All your ideas of it are wrong ; the 
confinement to the poop and the stringent regu- 
lations would bore you. But then, sitting on 
deck in fine weather is pleasure enough, with- 
out anything else. In a Queens ship, a yacht, 
or a merchantman with fewer passengers, it 
must be a delightful existence. 

\7tl1 Aug. — Since I wrote last, we got into 
the south-west monsoon for one day, and I sat up 
by the steersman in intense enjoyment — a bright 
sun and glittering blue sea ; and we tore along, 
pitching and tossing the water up like mad. It 
was glorious. At night, I was calmly reposing 
in my cot, in the middle of the steerage, just 
behind the main hatchway, when I heard a 
crashing of rigging and a violent noise and 



198 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

confusion on deck. The captain screamed out 
orders which informed me that we were in the 
thick of a collision — of course I lay still, and 
waited till the row, or the ship, went down. I 
found myself next day looked upon as no bet- 
ter than a heathen by all the women, because I 
had been cool, and declined to get up and make 
a noise. Presently the officers came and told 
me that a big ship had borne down on us — 
we were on the starboard tack, and all right — 
carried off our flying jib-boom and whisker (the 
sort of yard to the bowsprit). The captain 
says he was never in such imminent danger in 
his life, as she threatened to swing round and 
crush into our waist, which would have been 
certain destruction. The little dandy soldier- 
officer behaved capitally ; he turned his men up 
in no time, and had them all ready. He said, 
" Why, you know, I must see that my fellows 

go down decently/' S was as cool as an 

icicle, offered me my pea-jacket, &c, which I 
declined, as it would be of no use for me to 
go off in boats, even supposing there were time, 
and I preferred going down comfortably in my 
cot. Finding she was of no use to me, she took 
a yelling maid in custody, and was thought a 
brute for begging her to hold her noise. The 
first lieutenant, who looks on passengers as 
odious cargo, has utterly mollified to me since 



AT SEA. 1 99 

this adventure. I heard him report to the 
captain that I was " among em all, and never 
sung out, nor asked a question the while." 
This he called " beautiful. " 

Next day we got light wind S.W. (which 
ought to be the S.E. trades), and the weather 
has been, beyond all description, lovely ever 
since. Cool, but soft, sunny and bright — in 
short, perfect ; only the sky is so pale. Last 
night the sunset w 7 as a vision of loveliness, a 
sort of Pompadour paradise ; the sky seemed 
full of rose-crowned amorini, and the moon 
wore a rose-coloured veil of bright pink cloud, 
all so light, so airy, so brilliant, and so fleet- 
ing, that it was a kind of intoxication. It is far 
less grand than northern colour, but so lovely, 
so shiny. Then the flying fish skimmed like 
silver swallows over the blue water. Such a 
sight ! Also, I saw a whale spout like a very 
tiny garden fountain. The Southern Cross is 
a delusion, and the tropical moon no better 
than a Parisian one, at present. We are now 
in lat. 31 about, and have been driven half- 
way to Rio by this sweet southern breeze. I 
have never yet sat on deck without a cloth 
jacket or shawl, and the evenings are chilly. I 
no longer believe in tropical heat at sea. Even 
during the calm it was not so hot as I have 
often felt it in England — and that, under a 



200 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



vertical sun. The ship that nearly ran us and 
herself down, must have kept no look-out, and 
refused to answer our hail. She is supposed 
to be from Glasgow by her looks. We may 
speak a ship and send letters on board ; so 
excuse scrawl and confusion, it is so difficult to 
write at all. 

2pth Aug. — About 25 S. lat. and very much 
to the west. We have had all sorts of weather 
— some beautiful, some very rough, but always 
contrary winds — and got within 200 miles of 
the coast of South America. We now have 
a milder breeze from the soft N.E., after a 
bitter S. W., with Cape pigeons and molly mawks 
(a small albatross), not to compare with our 
gulls. We had private theatricals last night — 
ill acted, but beautifully got up as far as the 
sailors were concerned. I did not act, as I 
did not feel well enough, but I put a bit for 
Neptune into the Prologue and made the 
boatswain's mate speak it, to make up for the 
absence of any shaving at the Line, which 
the captain prohibited altogether. I thought it 
hard the men should not get their " tips." 
The boatswain's mate dressed and spoke it 
admirably ; and the old carpenter sang a 
famous comic song, dressed to perfection as 
a ploughboy. 

I am disappointed in the tropics as to 



AT SEA. 



2d 



warmth. Our thermometer stood at 8 2° one 
day only, under the vertical sun, N. of the 
Line ; on the Line at 74° ; and at sea it feels 
io° colder than it is. I have never been hot, 
except for two days 4 N. of the Line, and 
now it is very cold, but it is very invigorating. 
All day long it looks and feels like early 
morning ; the sky is pale blue, with light broken 
clouds ; the sea an inconceivably pure opaque 
blue — lapis lazuli, but far brighter. I saw a 
lovely dolphin three days ago ; his body, five 
feet long (some said more), is of a fiery blue- 
green, and his huge tail golden bronze. I was 
glad he scorned the bait and escaped the hook ; 
he was so beautiful. This is the sea from 
which Venus rose in her youthful glory. All 
is young, fresh, serene, beautiful, and cheerful. 

We have not seen a sail for weeks. But 
the life at sea makes amends for anything, to 
my mind. I am never tired of the calms, and 
I enjoy a stiff gale like a Mother Carey's 
chicken, so long as I can be on deck or in 
the captains cabin. Between decks it is very 
close and suffocating in rough weather, as all 
is shut up. We shall be still three weeks 
before we reach the Cape ; and now the sun 
sets with a sudden plunge before six, and the 
evenings are growing too cold again for me 
to go on deck after dinner. As long as I could, 



202 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



I spent fourteen hours out of the twenty-four 
in my quiet corner by the wheel, basking in 
the tropical sun. Never again will I believe 
in the tales of a burning sun ; the vertical sun 
just kept me warm — no more. In two days 
we shall be bitterly cold again. 

Immediately after writing the above it began 
to blow a gale (favourable, indeed, but more 
furious than the captain had ever known in 
these seas) — about lat. 34 S. and long. 25 . 
For three days we ran under close-reefed (four 
reefs) topsails, before a sea. The gale in the 
Bay of Biscay was a little shaking up in a 
puddle (a dirty one) compared to that glorious 
South Atlantic in all its majestic fury. The 
intense blue waves, crowned with fantastic 
crests of bright emeralds, and with the spray 
blowing about like wild dishevelled hair, came 
after us to swallow us up at a mouthful, but 
took us up on their backs, and hurried us along 
as if our ship were a cork. Then the gale 
slackened, and we had a dead calm, during 
which the waves banged us about frightfully, 
and our masts were much in jeopardy. Then 
a foul wind, S.E., increased into a gale, lasting 
five days, during which orders were given in 
dumb show, as no one's voice could be heard ; 
through it we fought and laboured, and dipped 
under water, and I only had my dry corner by 



OFF THE CAPE. 203 

the wheel, where the kind, pleasant little third 
officer lashed me tight. It was far more for- 
midable than the first gale, but less beautiful ; 
and we made so much lee-way that we lost 
ten days, and only arrived here yesterday. 
I recommend a fortnight's heavy gale in the 
South Atlantic as a cure for a blase state of 
mind. It cannot be described ; the sound, 
the sense of being hurled along without the 
smallest regard to " this side uppermost ;" the 
beauty of the whole scene, and the occasional 
crack and bear away of sails and spars; the 
officer trying to " sing out," quite in vain, and 
the boatswain's whistle scarcely audible. I 
remained near the wheel every day for as 
long as I could bear it, and was enchanted. 

Then the mortal perils of eating, drinking, 
moving, sitting, lying ; standing can't be done, 
even by the sailors, without holding on. The 
night of the gale, my cot twice touched the 
beams of the ship above me. I asked the 
captain if I had dreamt it, but he said it was 
quite possible ; he had never seen a ship so 
completely on her beam ends come up all right, 
masts and yards all sound. 

There is a middy about half M s size, 

a very tiny ten-year-older, who has been my 
delight ; he is so completely " the officer and 
the gentleman." My maternal entrails turned 



204 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



like old Alvarez', when that baby lay out on 
the very end of the cross-jack yard to reef, 
in the gale. It was quite voluntary, and the 
other new-comers all declined. I always called 

him " Mr. , sir," and asked his leave 

gravely, or, on occasions, his protection and 
assistance ; and his little dignity was lovely. 
He is polite to the ladies, and slightly distant 
to the passenger-boys, bigger than himself, 
whom he orders off dangerous places ; " Chil- 
dren, come out of that ; you'll be overboard. " 

A few days before landing I caught a bad 
cold, and kept my bed. I caught this cold by 
" sleeping with a damp man in my cabin," as 
some one said. During the last gale, the cabin 
opposite mine was utterly swamped, and I found 
the Irish soldier-servant of a little officer of 
eighteen in despair ; the poor lad had got 
ague, and eight inches of water in his bed, 
and two feet in the cabin. I looked in, and 
said, " He can't stay there — carry him into my 
cabin, and lay him in the bunk ;" which he did, 
with tears running down his honest old face. 

So we got the boy into S s bed, and cured 

his fever and ague, caught under canvas in 

Romney Marsh. Meantime, S had to 

sleep in a chair and to undress in the boy's 
wet cabin. As a token of gratitude, he sent 
me a poodle pup, born on board, very hand- 



CAPETOWN. 205 

some. The artillery officers were generally 
well-behaved ; the men, deserters and ruffians, 
sent out as drivers. We have had five courts- 
martial and two floggings in eight weeks, 
among seventy men. They were pampered 
with food and porter, and would not pull a 
rope, or get up at six to air their quarters. 
The sailors are an excellent set of men. When 
we parted, the first lieutenant said to me, 
"Weel, ye've a wonderful idee of discipline 
for a leddy, I will say. YouVe never been 
reported but once, and that was when on sick 
leave, about your light, and all in order." 

Capetown, September \%th. 
We anchored yesterday morning, and Cap- 
tain J , the Port Captain, came off with 

a most kind letter from Sir Baldwin Walker, 

his gig, and a boat and crew for S and 

the baggage. So I was whipped over the 
ship's side in a chair, and have come to a 

boarding-house where the J s live. I was 

tired and dizzy and landsick, and lay down and 
went to sleep. After an hour or so I woke, 
hearing a little gazouillement \ like that of chim- 
ney swallows. On opening my eyes I beheld 
four demons, " sons of the obedient Jinn," each 
bearing an article of furniture, and holding 
converse over me in the language of Nephe- 



206 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

lecotcygia. Why has no one ever mentioned 
the curious little soft voices of these coolies ? 
— you can't hear them with the naked ear three 
feet off. The most hideous demon (whose 
complexion had not only the colour but the 
precise metallic lustre of an ill black-leaded 
stove) at last chirruped a wish for orders, which 
I gave. I asked the pert, active, cockney 
housemaid what I ought to pay them, as, being 
a stranger, they might overcharge me. Her 
scorn was sublime. " Them nasty blacks never 
asks more than their regular charge." So I 
asked the black-lead demon, who demanded 
" two shilling each horse in waggon," and a 
dollar each " coolie man." He then glided 
with fiendish noiselessness about the room, 
arranged the furniture to his own taste, and 
finally said, " Poor missus sick then more 
chirruping among themselves, and finally a 
fearful gesture of incantation, accompanied by 
" God bless poor missus ! Soon well now." 
The wrath of the cockney housemaid became 
majestic. " There, ma'am, you see how saucy 
they have grown — a nasty black heathen Mo- 
hammedan a blessing of a white Christian ! " 

These men are the Auvergnats of Africa. 
I was assured that bankers entrust them with 
large sums in gold, which they carry some 
hundred and twenty miles, by unknown tracks, 



CAPETOWN. 207 

for a small gratuity. The pretty, graceful 
Malays are no honester than ourselves, but 
are excellent workmen. 

To-morrow my linen will go to a ravine in 
the giant mountain at my back, and there be 
scoured in a clear spring by brown women, 
bleached on the mountain - top, and carried 
back all those long miles on their heads, as it 
went up. 

My landlady is Dutch ; the waiter is an 
Africander, half Dutch, half Malay, very hand- 
some, and exactly like a French gentleman, 
and as civil. 

Enter " Africander " lad with a nosegay; 
only one flower that I know — heliotrope The 
vegetation is lovely ; the freshness of spring 
and the richness of summer. The leaves on 
the trees are in all the beauty of spring. 

Mrs. R brought me a plate of oranges, 

"just gathered/' as soon as I entered the house 
— and, oh ! how good they were ! better even 
than the Maltese. They are going out, and 
dear now — two a penny, very large and deli- 
cious. I am wild to get out and see the 
glorious scenery and the hideous people. To- 
day the wind has been a cold south-wester, 
and I have not been out. My windows look 
N. and E., so I get all the sun and warmth. 
The beauty of Table Bay is astounding. Fancy 



2o8 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



the Undercliff in the Isle of Wight magnified 
a hundredfold, with clouds floating halfway up 
the mountain. The Hottentot mountains in 
the distance have a fantastic jagged outline, 
which hardly looks real. The town is like 
those in the south of Europe ; flat roofs, and 
all unfinished ; roads are simply non-existent. 
At the doors sat brown women with black hair 
that shone like metal, very handsome ; they are 
Malays, and their men wear conical hats a-top 
of turbans, and are the chief artisans. At the 
end of the pier sat a Mozambique woman in 
white drapery and the most majestic attitude, 
like a Roman matron ; her features large and 
strong and harsh, but fine ; and her skin blacker 
than night. 

I have got a couple of Cape pigeons (the 

storm-bird of the South Atlantic) for J s 

hat. They followed us several thousand miles, 
and were hooked for their pains. The alba- 
trosses did not come within hail. 

The little Maltese goat gave a pint of milk 
night and morning, and was a great comfort to 
the cow. She did not like the land or the 
grass at first, and is to be thrown out of milk 
now. She is much admired and petted by the 
young Africander. My room is at least eigh- 
teen feet high, and contains exactly a bedstead, 
one straw mattrass, one rickety table, one wash- 



CAPETOWN. 209 

table, two chairs, and a broken looking-glass ; 
no carpet, and a hiatus of three inches between 
the floor and the door, but all very clean ; and 
excellent food. I have not made a bargain 
yet, but I daresay I shall stay here. 

Friday. — I have just received your letter ; 
where it has been hiding I can't conceive. 
To-day is cold and foggy, like a baddish day 
in June with you ; no colder, if so cold. Still, 
I did not venture out, the fog rolls so heavily 
over the mountain. Well, I must send off this 
yarn, which is as interminable as the " sinnet " 
and " foxes " which I twisted with the mids. 

Capetown, October yd. 

I came on shore on a very fine day, but the 
weather changed, and we had a fortnight of 
cold and damp and S.W. wind (equivalent to 
our east wand), such as the u oldest inhabitant " 
never experienced ; and I have had as bad an 
attack of bronchitis as ever I remember, having 
been in bed till yesterday. I had a very good 
doctor, half Italian, half Dane, born at the Cape 
of Good Hope, and educated at Edinburgh, 
named Chiappini. He has a son studying 
medicine in London, whose mother is Dutch ; 
such is the mixture of bloods here. 

Yesterday, the wind went to the south-east; 
the blessed sun shone out, and the weather was 

P 



2IO 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



lovely at once. The mountain threw off his 
cloak of cloud, and all was bright and warm. 
I got up and sat in the veranda over the stoep 
(a kind of terrace in front of every house here). 
They brought me a tortoise as big as half a 
crown and as lively as a cricket to look at, and 
a chameleon like a fairy dragon — a green fellow, 
five inches long, with no claws on his feet, but 
suckers like a fly — the most engaging little 
beast. He sat on my finger, and caught flies 
with great delight and dexterity, and I longed 

to send him to M . To-day, I went a long 

drive with Captain and Mrs. J : we went 

to Rondebosch and Wynberg — lovely country ; 
rather like Herefordshire; red earth and oak- 
trees. Miles of the road were like Gains- 
borough-lane,* on a large scale, and looked 
quite English ; only here and there a hedge 
of prickly pear, or the big white arums in the 
ditches, told a different tale ; and the scarlet 
geraniums and myrtles growing wild puzzled 
one. 

And then came rattling along a light, rough, 
but well-poised cart, with an Arab screw driven 
by a Malay, in a great hat on his kerchiefed 
head, and his wife, with her neat dress, glossy 
black hair, and great gold earrings. They 
were coming with fish, which he had just caught 

* A lane near Esher. 



CAPETOWN. 



211 



at Kalk Bay, and was going to sell for the 
dinners of the Capetown folk. You pass neat 
villas, with pretty gardens and stoeps, gay with 
flowers, and at the doors of several neat Malay 
girls are lounging, They are the best servants 
here, for the emigrants mostly drink. Then 
you see a group of children at play, some as 
black as coal, some brown and very pretty. 
A little black girl, about R 's age, has care- 
fully tied what little petticoat she has, in a tight 
coil round her waist, and displays the most 
darling little round legs and behind, which it 
would be a real pleasure to slap ; it is so shiny 
and round, and she runs and stands so strongly 
and gracefully. 

Here comes another Malay, with a pair of 
baskets hanging from a stick across his shoulder, 
like those in Chinese pictures, which his hat 
also resembles. Another cart full of working 
men, with a Malay driver; and inside are jum- 
bled some red-haired, rosy-cheeked English 
navvies, with the ugliest Mozambiques, blacker 
than Erebus, and w T ith faces all knobs and cor- 
ners, like a crusty loaf. As we drive home we 
see a span of sixteen noble oxen in the market- 
place, and on the ground squats the Hottentot 
driver. His face no words can describe — his 
cheek-bones are up under his hat, and his 
meagre-pointed chin halfway down to his waist ; 

p 2 



212 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



his eyes have the dull look of a viper's, and 
his skin is dirty and sallow v but not darker than 
a dirty Europeans. 

Capetown is rather pretty, but beyond words 
untidy and out of repair. As it is neither 
drained nor paved, it won't do in hot weather ; 
and I shall migrate " up country" to a Dutch 

village. Mrs. J , who is Dutch herself, 

tells me that one may board in a Dutch farm- 
house very cheaply, and with great comfort (of 
course eating with the family), and that they 
will drive you about the country and tend your 
horses for nothing, if you are friendly, and 
don't treat them with Engelsche hoog-moedigheid. 

Oct \qth. — The packet came in last night, 
but just in time to save the fine of 50/. per 
diem, and I got your welcome letter this morn- 
ing. I have been coughing all this time, but I 
hope I shall improve. I came out at the very 
worst time of year, and the weather has been 
(of course) " unprecedentedly " bad and change- 
able. But when it is fine it is quite celestial ; 
so clear, so dry, so light. Then comes a cloud 
over Table Mountain, like the sugar on a wed- 
ding-cake, which tumbles down in splendid 
waterfalls, and vanishes unaccountably half- 
way ; and then you run indoors and shut doors 
and windows, for it portends a " south-easter/' 
i.e. a hurricane, and Capetown disappears in im- 



CAPETOWN. 213 

penetrable clouds of dust. But this wind, com- 
ing off the hills and fields of ice, is the Cape 
doctor, and keeps away cholera, fever of every 
sort, and all malignant or infectious diseases. 
Most of them are unknown here. Never was 
so healthy a place ; but the remedy is of the 
heroic nature, and very disagreeable. The 
stones rattle against the windows, and omni- 
buses are blown over on the Rondebosch road. 

A few days ago I drove to Mr. V 's 

farm. Imagine St. George's Hill,* and the 
most beautiful bits of it, sloping gently up to 
Table Mountain, with its grey precipices, and 
intersected with Scotch burns, which water it 
all the year round, as they come from the living 
rock ; and sprinkled with oranges, pomegranates, 
and camellias in abundance. You drive through 
a mile or two as described, and arrive at a 
square, planted with rows of fine oaks close 
together ; at the upper end stands the house, 
all on the ground-floor, but on a high stoep : 
rooms eighteen feet high ; the old slave quarters 
on each side ; stables, &c, opposite ; the square 
as big as Belgrave Square, and the buildings 
in the old French style. 

We then went on to Newlands, a still more 
beautiful place. Immense trenching and drain- 
ing going on — the foreman a Caffre, black 

* Near Walton-on-Thames. 



214 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



as ink, six feet three inches high, and broad 
in proportion, with a staid, dignified air, and 
Englishmen working under him ! At the 
^streamlets there are the inevitable groups of 
Malay women washing clothes, and brown 
babies sprawling about. Yesterday, I should 
have bought a black woman for her beauty, 
had it been still possible. She was carrying 
an immense weight on her head, and was far 
gone with child ; but such stupendous physical 
perfection I never even imagined. Her jet-black 
face was like the Sphynx, with the same mys- 
terious smile ; her shape and walk were god- 
dess-like, and the lustre of her skin, teeth, and 
eyes, showed the fulness of health ; — Caffre, of 
course. I walked after her as far as her swift 
pace would let me, in envy and admiration of 
such stately humanity. 

The ordinary blacks, or Mozambiques, as 
they call them, are hideous. Malay here seems 
equivalent to Mohammedan. They were origi- 
nally Malays, but now they include every 
shade, from the blackest nigger to the most 
blooming Englishwoman. Yes, indeed, the 
emigrant girls have been known to turn 
" Malays/' and get thereby husbands who know 
not billiards and brandy — the two diseases of 
Capetown. They risked a plurality of wives, 
and professed Islam ; but they got fine clothes 



CAPETOWN. 215 

and industrious husbands. They wear a very 
pretty dress, and all have a great air of inde- 
pendence and self-respect ; and the real Malays 
are very handsome. I am going to see one of 
the Mollahs soon, and to look at their schools 
and mosque, which, to the distraction of the 
Scotch, they call their " Kerk." 

I asked a Malay if he would drive me in 
his cart with the six or eight mules, which he 
agreed to do for thirty shillings and his dinner 
{i.e. a share of my dinner) on the road. When 
I asked how long it would take, he said, 
" Allah is groot," which meant, i found, that it 
depended on the state of the beach — the only 
road for half the way. 

The sun, moon, and stars are different beings 
from those we look upon. Not only are they 
so large and bright, but you see that the moon 
and stars are balls, and that the sky is endless 
beyond them. On the other hand, the clear, 
dry air dwarfs Table Mountain, as you seem to 
see every detail of it to the very top. 

Capetown is very picturesque. The old 
Dutch buildings are very handsome and pecu- 
liar, but are falling to decay and dirt in the 
hands of their present possessors. The few 
Dutch ladies I have seen are very pleasing. 
They are gentle and simple, and naturally well- 
bred. Some of the Malay women are very 



2l6 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



handsome, and the little children are darlings. 
A little parti-coloured group of every shade, 
from ebony to golden hair and blue eyes, were 
at play in the street yesterday, and the majority 
were pretty, especially the half-castes. Most 
of the Caffres I have seen look like the per- 
fection of human physical nature, and seem to 
have no diseases. Two days ago I saw a 
Hottentot girl of seventeen, a housemaid here. 
You would be enchanted by her superfluity of 
flesh ; the face was very queer and ugly, and 
yet pleasing, from the sweet smile and the rosy 
cheeks, which please one much, in contrast to 
all the pale yellow faces — handsome as some 
of them are. 

I wish I could send the six chameleons which 
a good-natured parson brought me in his hat, 
and a queer lizard in his pocket. The chame- 
leons are charming, so monkey-like and so 
caressants. They sit on my breakfast tray 
and catch flies, and hang in a bunch by their 
tails, and reach out after my hand. 

I have had a very kind letter from Lady 
Walker, and shall go and stay with them at 
Simon's Bay as soon as I feel up to the twenty 
two miles along the beaches and bad roads in 
the mail-cart w r ith three horses. The teams 
of mules (I beg pardon, spans) w r ould delight 
you — eight, ten, twelve, even sixteen sleek, 



CAPETOWN. 



217 



handsome beasts ! and oh, such oxen ! noble 
beasts with humps ; and hump is very good to 
eat too. 

Oct. 21st. — The mail o^oes out to-morrow, so 

<_> * 

I must finish this letter. I feel better to-day 
than I have yet felt, in spite of the south- 
easter. 

2%th Oct. — Since I wrote, we have had more 
really cold weather, but yesterday the summer 
seems to have begun. The air is as light and 
clear as if there were none, and the sun hot ; but 
I walk in it, and do not find it oppressive. 
All the household groans and perspires, but I 
am very comfortable. 

Yesterday I sat in the full broil for an hour 
or more, in the hot dust of the Malay burial- 
ground. Thev buried the head butcher of the 
Mussulmans, and a most strange poetical scene 
it was. The burial-ground is on the side of 
the Lion Mountain — on the Lion's rump — and 
overlooks the whole bay, part of the town, and 
the most superb mountain panorama beyond. 
I never saw a view within miles of it for beauty 
and grandeur. Far down, a fussy English 
steamer came puffing and popping into the 
deep blue bay, and the " Hansom's " cabs went 
tearing down to the landing-place; and round 
me sat a crowd of grave brown men, chanting 



218 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



" Allah il- Allah " to the most monotonous but 
musical air, and with the most perfect voices. 
The chant seemed to swell, and then fade, 
like the wind in the trees. I went in after the 
procession, which consisted of a bier covered 
with three common Paisley shawls of gay 
colours ; no one looked at me ; and when they 
got near the grave, I kept at a distance, and 
sat down when they did. But a man came up 
and said, " You are welcome." So I went 
close, and saw the whole ceremony. They 
took the corpse, wrapped in a sheet, out of 
the bier, and lifted it into the grave, where two 
men received it ; then a sheet was held over 
the grave till they had placed the dead man ; 
and then flowers and earth were thrown in by 
all present, the grave filled in, watered out of 
a brass kettle, and decked with flowers. Then 
a fat old man, in printed calico shirt sleeves, 
and a plaid waistcoat and corduroy trousers, 
pulled off his shoes, squatted on the grave, 
and recited endless " Koran/' many reciting 
after him. Then they chanted " Allah il-Allah " 
for twenty minutes, I think ; then prayers, with 
" Ameens " and " Allah il-Allahs " again. Then 
all jumped up and walked off. There were 
eighty or a hundred men, no women, and five 
or six " Hadjis," draped in beautiful Eastern 
dresses, and looking very supercilious. The 



CAPETOWN. 219 

whole party made less noise in moving and 
talking than two Englishmen. 

A white-complexioned man spoke to me in 
excellent English (which few of them speak), 
and was very communicative and civil. He 
told me the dead man was his brother-in-law, 
and he himself the barber. I hoped I had 
not taken a liberty. " Oh, no; poor Malays 
were proud when noble English persons showed 
such respect to their religion. The young 
Prince had done so too, and Allah would not 
forget to protect him. He also did not laugh 
at their prayers, praise be to God ! " I had 
already heard that Prince Alfred is quite the 
darling of the Malays. He insisted on accept- 
ing their Jete, which the Capetown people had 
snubbed. I have a friendship with one Abdul 
jemaalee and his wife Betsy, a couple of old 
folks who were slaves to Dutch owners, and 
now keep a fruit-shop of a rough sort, with 
" Betsy, fruiterer/ 5 painted on the back of an 
old tin tray, and hung up by the door of the 
house. Abdul first bought himself, and then 
his wife Betsy, whose " missus " generously 
threw in her bed-ridden mother. He is a fine 
handsome old man, and has confided to me 
that 5,000/. would not buy what he is worth 
now. I have also read the letters written by 
his son, young Abdul Rachman, now a student 



220 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



at Cairo, who has been away five years — four 
at Mecca. The young theologian writes to his 
" hoog eerbare moeder" a fond request for money, 
and promises to return soon. I am invited 
to the feast wherewith he will be welcomed. 
Old Abdul Jemaalee thinks it will divert my 
mind, and prove to me that Allah will take 
me home safe to my children, about whom he 
and his wife asked many questions. Moreover, 
he compelled me to drink herb tea, compounded 
by a Malay doctor, for my cough. I declined 
at first, and the poor old man looked hurt, 
gravely assured me that it was not true that 
Malays always poisoned Christians, and drank 
some himself. Thereupon I was obliged, of 
course, to drink up the rest, It certainly did 
me good, and I have drunk it since with good 
effect ; it is intensely bitter,, and rather sticky. 
The white servants and the Dutch landlady 
where I lodge shake their heads ominously, 
and hope it mayn't poison me a year hence. 
" Them nasty Malays can make it work months 
after you take it." They also possess the evil 
eye, and a talent for love potions. As the men 
are very handsome and neat, I incline to believe 
that part of it. 



CAPETOWN. 



221 



Rath/elder's Halfway House, 6th November. 

I drove out here yesterday in Captain T s 

drag, which he kindly brought into Capetown 
for me. He and his wife and children came 
for a change of air for whooping cough, and 
advised me to come too, as my cough continues, 
though less troublesome. It is a lovely spot, 
six miles from Constantia, ten from Capetown, 
and twelve from Simon's Bay. I intend to stay 
here a little while, and then to go to Kalk Bay, 
six miles from hence. This inn was excellent, 
I hear, " in the old Dutch times." Now it is 
kept by a young Englishman, Capeborn, and 
his wife, and is dirty and disorderly. I pay 
twelve shillings a day for S— and self, with- 
out a sitting-room, and my bed is a straw 
paillasse ; but the food is plentiful, and not 
very bad. That is the cheapest rate of living 
possible here, and every trifle costs double 
what it would in England, except wine, which 
is very fair at fivepence a bottle — a kind of 
hock. The landlord pays i/. a day rent for 
this house, which is the great resort of the 
Capetown people for Sundays, and for change 
of air, &c. — a rude kind of Richmond. His 
cook gets 3/. yqs. a month, besides food for 
himself and wife, and beer and sugar. The 
two (white) housemaids get i/. 15^. and 1/. \os. 
respectively (everything by the month). Fresh 



222 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



butter is $s. 6d. a pound, mutton yd. ; washing 
very dear ; cabbages my host sells at 3d. a 
piece, and pumpkins Sd. He has a fine garden, 
and pays a gardener $s. 6d. a day, and black 
labourers 2s. They work three days a week ; 
then they buy rice and a coarse fish, and lie in 
the sun till it is eaten ; while their darling little 
fat black babies play in the dust, and their black 
wives make battues in the covers in their woolly 
heads. But the little black girl who cleans my 
room is far the best servant, and smiles and 
speaks like Lalage herself, ugly as the poor 
drudge is. The voice and smile of the negroes 
here are bewitching, though they are hideous ; 

and neither S nor I have yet heard a black 

child cry, or seen one naughty or quarrelsome. 
You would want to lay out a fortune in woolly 
babies. Yesterday I had a dreadful heartache 
after my darling, on her little birthday, and 
even the lovely ranges of distant mountains, 
coloured like opals in the sunset, did not delight 
me. This is a dreary place for strangers. 
Abdul Jemaalee's tisane, and a banana which 
he gave me each time I went to his shop, are 
the sole offer of " Won't you take something ? " 
or even the sole attempt at a civility that I have 

received, except from the J 's, who are very 

civil and kind. 

When I have done my visit to Simon's Bay, 



CAPETOWN. 223 

I will go " up country," to Stellenbosch, Paarl 
and Worcester, perhaps. If I can find people 
going in a bullock- waggon, I will join them ; it 
costs 1/. a day, and goes twenty miles. If 
money were no object, I would hire One with 
Cafifres to hunt, as well as outspan and drive, 
and take a saddle-horse. There is plenty of 
pleasure to be had in travelling here, if you can 
afford it. The scenery is quite beyond any- 
thing you can imagine in beauty. I went to a 

country house at Rondebosch with the J s, 

and I never saw so lovely a spot. The posses- 
sor had done his best to spoil it. and to destroy 
the handsome Dutch house and fountains and 
aqueducts; but Nature was too much for him, and 
the place was lovely in neglect and shabbiness. 

Now I will tell you my impressions of the 
state of society here, as far as I have been 
able to make out by playing the inquisitive 
traveller. I daresay the statements are exag- 
gerated, but I do not think they are wholly 
devoid of truth. The Dutch round Capetown 
(I don't know anything of " up country") are 
sulky and dispirited ; they regret the slave 
days, and can't bear to pay wages ; they have 
sold all their fine houses in town to merchants, 
&c, and let their handsome country places go 
to pieces, and their land lie fallow, rather than 
hire the men they used to own. They hate 



224 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



the Malays, who were their slaves, and whose 
" insolent prosperity" annoys them, and they 
don't like the vulgar, bustling English. The 
English complain that the Dutch won't die, 
and that" they are the curse of the colony (a 
statement for which they can never give a 
reason). But they, too, curse the emancipation, 
long to flog the niggers, and hate the Malays, 
who work harder and don't drink, and who are 
the only masons, tailors, &c, and earn from 
4.S. 6d. to 10s. a day. The Malays also have 
almost a monopoly of cart-hiring and horse- 
keeping. An Englishman charges 4/. 10s. or 
5/. for a carriage to do what a Malay will do 

quicker in a light cart for 30s. S says, 

" The English here think the coloured people 
ought to do the work, and they to get the 
wages. Nothing less would satisfy them." 
Servants' wages are high, but other wages not 
much higher than in England ; yet industrious 
people invariably make fortunes, or at least 
competencies, even when they begin with no- 
thing. Few of the English will do anything 
but lounge, while they abuse the Dutch as lazy 
and the Malays as thieves, and feel their fingers 
itch to be at the blacks. The Africanders 
(Dutch and negro mixed in various proportions) 
are more or less lazy, dirty, and dressy, and 
the beautiful girls wear pork-pie hats, and look 



CAPETOWN. 225 

very winning and rather fierce ; but to them 
the philanthropists at home have provided for- 
midable rivals, by emptying a shipload of young 
ladies from a " Reformatory " into the streets 
of Capetown. 

I am puzzled what to think of the climate 
here for invalids. The air is dry and clear 
beyond conception, and light, but the sun is 
scorching, while the south-east wind blows an 
icy hurricane, and the dust obscures the sky. 
These winds last all the summer, till February 
or March. I am told when they don't blow 
it is heavenly, though still cold in the mornings 
and evenings. No one must be out at or after 
sunset ; the chill is so sudden. Many of the 
people here declare that it is death to weak 
lungs, and send their poitrinaires to Madeira, 
or the south of France. They also swear the 
climate is enervating, but their looks, and above 
all the blowsy cheeks and hearty play of the 
English children, disprove that ; and those who 
come here consumptive get well in spite of the 
doctors, who wont allow it possible. I believe 
it is a climate which requires great care from 
invalids, but that, with care, it is good, because 
it is bracing as well as warm and dry. It is 
not nearly so warm as I expected ; the southern 
icebergs are at no great distance, and they ice 
the south-east wind for us. If it were not so 

Q 



226 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



violent, it would be delicious ; and there are no 
unhealthy winds — nothing like our east wind. 
The people here grumble at the north-wester, 
which sometimes brings rain, and call it damp, 
which, as they don't know what damp is, is 
excusable ; it feels like a dry south-wester in 
England. It is, however, quite a delusion to 
think of living out of doors here ; the south- 
easter keep one in nearly, if not quite, half 
one's time, and in summer they say the sun is 
too hot to be out except morning and even- 
ing. But I doubt that, for they make an out- 
cry about heat as soon as it is not cold. The 
transitions are so sudden, that, with the ther- 
mometer at 76 , you must not go out without 
taking a thick warm cloak ; you may walk into 
a south-easter round the first spur of the moun- 
tain, and be cut in two. In short, the air is 
cold and bracing, and the sun blazing hot ; 
those whom that suits will do well. I should 
like a softer air ; but I may be wrong ; when 
there is only a moderate wind it is delicious. 
You walk in the hot sun, which makes you 
perspire a very little ; but you dry as you go, 
the air is so dry ; and you come in untired. 
I speak of slow walking. There are no hot- 
climate diseases ; no dysentery, fever, &c. 



SIMON'S BA V. 



227 



Simon's Bay, November iZth. 
I came on here in a cart, as I felt ill from 
the return of the cold weather. While at 
Rathfelder we had a superb day, and the, 

J s drove me over to Constantia, which 

deserves all its reputation for beauty. What 
a divine spot ! — such kloofs, with silver rills 
running down them ! It is useless to describe 
scenery. It was a sort of glorified Scotland, 
with sunshine, flowers, and orange-groves. We 
got home hungry and tired, but in great spirits. 
Alas ! next day came the south-easter — blacker, 
colder, more cutting than ever — and lasted a 
week. 

The Walkers came over on horseback, and 
pressed me to go to them. They are most kind 
and agreeable people. The drive to Simon's 
Bay was lovely, along the coast and across five 
beaches of snow-white sand, which look like 
winter landscapes ; and the mountains and bay 
are lovely. 

Living is very dear, and washing, travelling, 
chemist's bills — all enormous. Thirty shillings 
a cart and horse from Rathfelder here — twelve 
miles ; and then the young English host wanted 
me to hire another cart for one box and one 
bath ! But I would not, and my obstinacy was 
stoutest. If I want cart or waggon again, Til 

Q 2 



223 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

deal with a Malay, only the fellows drive with 
forty Jehu-power up and down the mountains. 

A Madagascar woman offered to give me 
her orphan grandchild, a sweet brown fairy, six 
..years old, with long, silky, black hair, and 
gorgeous eyes. The child hung about me in- 
cessantly all the time I was at Rathfelder, and 
I had a great mind to her. She used to laugh 
like baby, and was like her altogether, only 
prettier, and very brown ; and when I told her 
she was like my own little child, she danced 
about, and laughed like mad at the idea that 
she could look like " pretty white missy." She 
was mighty proud of her needlework and 
ABC performances. 

It is such a luxury to sleep on a real 
mattrass — not stuffed with dirty straw ; to eat 
clean food, and live in a nice room. But my 
cough is very bad, and the cruel wind blows 
on and on. I saw the doctor of the Naval 
Hospital here to-day. If I don't mend, I will 
try his advice, and go northward for warmth. 
If you can find an old Mulready envelope, 
send it here for Miss Walker, who collects 
stamps and has not got it, and write and thank 
dear good Lady Walker for her kindness 
to me. 

You will get this about the new year. God 
bless you all, and send us better days in 1862. 



JOURNEY TO CALEDON. 



229 



Caledon, December loth. 

I did not feel at all well at Simon's Bay, 
which is a land of hurricanes. We had a 
" south-easter " for fourteen days, without an 
hour's lull ; even the flag-ship had no com- 
munication with the shore for eight days. The 
good old naval surgeon there ordered me to 
start off for this high " up-country " district, 
and arranged my departure for the first possible 
day. He made a bargain for me with a Dutch- 
man, for a light Malay cart (a capital vehicle 
with two wheels) and four horses, for 30s. a 
day — three days to Caledon from Simon's Bay, 
about a hundred miles or so, and one day of 
back fare to his home in Capetown. 

Luckily, on Saturday the wind dropped, and 
we started at nine o'clock, drove to a place 
about four miles from Capetown, when we 
turned off on the " country road," and out- 
spanned at a post-house kept by a nice old 
German with a Dutch wife. Once well out of 
Capetown, people are civil, but inquisitive ; I 
was strictly cross-questioned, and proved so 
satisfactory, that the old man wished to give me 
some English porter gratis. We then jogged 
along again at a very good pace to another way- 
side public, where we outspanned again and ate, 
and were again questioned, and again made 
much of. By six o'clock w r e got to the Eerste 



230 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

River, having gone forty miles or so in the day. 
It was a beautiful day, and very pleasant 
travelling. We had three good little half-Arab 
bays, and one brute of a grey as off-wheeler, 
who fell down continually ; but a Malay driver 
works miracles, and no harm came of it. The 
cart is small, with a permanent tilt at top, and 
movable curtains of waterproof all round ; 
harness of raw leather, very prettily put together 
by Malay workmen. We sat behind, and our 
brown coachman, with his mushroom hat, in 
front, with my bath and box, and a miniature 
of himself about seven years old — a nephew, — 
so small and handy that he would be worth his 
weight in jewels as a tiger. At Eerste River 
we slept in a pretty old Dutch house, kept by 
an Englishwoman, and called the Fox and 
Kound, " to sound like home, my lady." Very 
nice and comfortable it was. 

I started next day at ten ; and never shall I 
forget that day's journey. The beauty of the 
country exceeds all description. Ranges of 
mountains beyond belief fantastic in shape, and 
between them a rolling country, desolate and 
wild, and covered with gorgeous flowers among 
the "scrub." First we came to Hottentots 
Holland (now called Somerset West), the love- 
liest little old Dutch village, with trees and 
little canals of bright clear mountain water, and 



JOURNEY TO CALEB ON. 231 

groves of orange and pomegranate, and white 
houses, with incredible gable ends. We tried 
to stop here ; but forage was ninepence a 
bundle, and the true Malay would rather die 
than pay more than he can help. So we 
pushed on to the foot of the mountains, and 
bought forage (forage is oats au naturel, straw 
and all, the only feed known here, where there 
is no grass or hay) at a farm kept by English 
people, who all talked Dutch together ; only 
one girl of the family could speak English. 
They were very civil, asked us in, and gave us 
unripe apricots, and the girl came down with 
seven flounces, to talk with us. Forage was 
still ninepence — half a dollar a bundle — and 
Choslullah Jaamee groaned over it, and said 
the horses must have less forage and " more 
plenty roll " (a roll in the dust is often the only 
refreshment offered to the beasts, and seems to 
do great good). 

We got to Caledon at eleven, and drove to 
the place the Doctor recommended — formerly a 
country house of the Dutch governor. It is a 
lovely spot ; but do you remember the Schloss 
in Immermann's " Neuer Munchausen" ? Well, 
it is that. A ruin ; — windows half broken and 
boarded up, the handsome steps in front fallen 
in, and all en suite. The rooms I saw were 
large and airy ; but mud floors, whitewashed 



232 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

walls, one chair, one stump bedstead, and 
prater ea nihil. It has a sort of wild, romantic 
look ; I hear, too, it is wonderfully healthy, and 
not so bad as it looks. The long- corridor is 
like the entrance to a great stable, or some 
such thing ; earth floors and open to all winds. 
But you can't imagine it, however I may de- 
scribe ; it is so huge and strange, and ruinous. 
Finding that the mistress of the house was ill, 
and nothing ready for our reception, I drove on 
to the inn. Rain, like a Scotch mist, came on 
just as we arrived, and it is damp and chilly, 
to the delight of all the dwellers in the land, 
who love bad weather. It makes me cough a 
little more ; but they say it is quite unheard 
of, and can't last. Altogether, I suppose this 
summer here is as that of '6o was in Eng- 
land. 

I forgot, in describing my journey, the regal- 
looking Caffre housemaid at Eerste River. 
" Such a dear, good creature," the landlady 
said ; and, oh, such a " noble savage ! " — with 
a cotton handkerchief folded tight like a cravat 
and tied round her head with a bow behind, 
and the short curly wool sticking up in the 
middle ; — it looked like a royal diadem on her 
solemn brow; she stepped like Juno, with a 
huge tub full to the brim, and holding several 
pailfuls, on her head, and a pailful in each hand, 



JOURNEY TO CALEDON. 233 

bringing water for the stables from the river, 
across a large field. There is nothing like a 
Caffre for power and grace ; and the face, 
though very African, has a sort of grandeur 
which makes it utterly unlike that of the negro. 
That woman's bust and waist were beauty itself. 
The Caffres are also very clean and very clever 
as servants, I hear, learning cookery, &c. in a 
wonderfully short time. When they have saved 
money enough to buy cattle in Kaffraria, off 
they go, cast aside civilization and clothes, and 
enjoy life in naked luxury. 

I can't tell you how I longed for you in my 
journey. You would have been so delighted 
with the country and the queer turn-out — the 
wild little horses, and the polite and delicately- 
clean Moslem driver. His description of his 
sufferings from " louses," when he slept in a 
Dutch farm, were pathetic, and ever since, he 
sleeps in his cart, with the little boy ; and they 
bathe in the nearest river, and eat their lawful 
food and drink their water out of doors. They 
declined beer, or meat which* had been unlaw- 
fully killed. In Capetown all meat is killed 
by Malays, and has the proper prayer spoken 
over it, and they will eat no other. I was 
offered a fowl at a farm, but Choslullah thought 
it "too much money for Missus," and only 
accepted some eggs. He was gratified at my 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



recognising the propriety of his saying " Bis- 
millah " over any animal killed for food. Some 
drink beer, and drink a good deal, but Choslullah 
thought it " very wrong for Malay people, and 
not good for Christian people, to be drunk 
beasties ; — little wine or beer good for Chris- 
tians, but not too plenty much." I gave him 
ten shillings for himself, at which he was en- 
chanted, and again begged me to write to his 
master for him when I wanted to leave Caledon, 
and to be sure to say, " Mind send same coach- 
man." He planned to drive me back through 
Worcester, Burnt Vley, Paarl, and Stellenbosch 
— a longer round ; but he could do it in three 
days well, so as " not cost Missus more money," 
and see a different country. 

This place is curiously like Rochefort in the 
Ardennes, only the hills are mountains, and 
the sun is far hotter ; not so the air, which is 
fresh and pleasant. I am in a very nice inn, 
kept by an English ex-officer, who went through 
the Caffre war, and found his pay insufficient 
for the wants of a numerous family. I quite 
admire his wife, who cooks, cleans, nurses her 
babes, gives singing and music lessons, — all 
as merrily as if she liked it. I dine with them 
at two o'clock, and Captain D— — has a table 
d'hote at seven for travellers. I pay only 
ios. 6d. a day for myself and S- — ; this 



JOURNEY TO CALEDON. 235 

includes all but wine or beer. The air is very 
clear and fine, and my cough is already much 
better. I shall stay here as long as it suits 
me and does me good, and then I am to send 
for Choslullah again, and go back by the road 
he proposed. It rains here now and then, and 
blows a good deal, but the wind has lost its 
bitter chill and depressing quality. I hope 
soon to ride a little and see the country, which 
is beautiful. 

The water-line is all red from the ironstone, 
and there are hot chalybeate springs up the 
mountain which are very good for rheumatism, 
and very strengthening, I am told. The boots 
here is a Mantatee, very black, and called 
Kleenboy, because he is so little ; he is the 
only sleek black I have seen here, but looks 
heavy and downcast. One maid is Irish (they 
make the best servants here), a very nice clean 
girl, and the other, a brown girl of fifteen, 
whose father is English, and married to her 
mother. Food here is scarce, all but bread 
and mutton, both good. Butter is 3$. a pound ; 
fruit and vegetables only to be had by chance. 
I miss the oranges and lemons sadly. Poultry 
and milk uncertain. The bread is good every- 
where, from the fine wheat : in the country it 
is brownish and sweet. The wine here is 
execrable; this is owing to the prevailing in- 



236 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

dolence, for there is excellent wine made from 
the Rhenish grape, rather like Sauterne, with 
a soup$on of Manzanilla flavour. The sweet 
Constantia is also very good indeed ; not the 
expensive sort, which is made from grapes half 
dried, and is a liqueur, but a light, sweet, straw- 
coloured wine, which even I liked. We drank 
nothing else at the Admiral's. The kind old 
sailor has given me a dozen of wine, which is 
coming up here in a waggon, and will be most 
welcome. I can't tell you how kind he and 
Lady Walker were ; I was there three weeks, 
and hope to go again when the south-easter 
season is over and I can get out a little. I 
could not leave the house at all ; and even 
Lady Walker and the girls, who are very 
energetic, got out but little. They are a 
charming family. 

I have no doubt that Dr. Shea was right, 
and that one must leave the coast to get a fine 
climate. Here it seems to me nearly perfect — 
too windy for my pleasure, but then the sun 
would be overpowering without a fresh breeze. 
Everyone agrees in saying that the winter in 
Capetown is delicious — like a fine English 
summer. In November the south-easters 
begin, and they are " fiendish ; " this year they 
began in September. The mornings here are 
always fresh, not to say cold ; the afternoons, 



JOURNEY TO C ALE DON. 237 

from one to three, broifing; then delightful 
till sunset, which is deadly cold for three- 
quarters of an hour ; the night is lovely. The 
wind rises and falls with the sun. That is the 
general course of things. Now and then it 
rains, and this year there is a little south-easter, 
which is quite unusual, and not odious, as it is 
near the sea ; and there is seldom a hot wind 
from the north. I am promised that on or 
about Christmas-day ; then doors and windows 
are shut, and you gasp. Hitherto we have 
had nothing nearly so hot as Paris in summer, 
or as the summer of 1859 in England ; and 
they say it is no hotter, except when the hot 
wind blows, which is very rare. Up here, 
snow "sometimes lies, in winter, on the moun- 
tain tops; but ice is unknown, and Table Moun- 
tain is never covered with snow. The flies are 
pestilent — incredibly noisy, intrusive, and dis- 
gusting — and oh, such swarms ! Fleas and 
bugs not half so bad as in France, as far as 
my experience goes, and I have poked about in 
queer places. 

I get up at half-past five, and walk in the 
early morning, before the sun and wind 
begin to be oppressive ; it is then dry, calm, 
and beautiful : then I sleep like a Dutchman 
in the middle of the day. At present it tires 
me, but I shall get used to it soon. The 



2 3 8 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 



Dutch doctor here advised me to do so, to 
avoid the wind. 

When all was settled, we climbed the Hot- 
tentot's mountains by Sir Lowry's Pass, a long 
curve round two hill-sides ; and what a view ! 
Simon's Bay opening out far below, and range 
upon range of crags on one side, with a wide 
fertile plain, in which lies Hottentot's Holland, 
at one's feet. The road is just wide enough 
for one waggon, i.e. very narrow. Where the 
smooth rock came through, Choslullah gave a 
little grunt, and the three bays went off like 
hippogriffs, dragging the grey with them. By 
this time my confidence in his driving was 
boundless, or I should have expected to find 
myself in atoms at the bottom of the precipice. 
At the top of the pass we turned a sharp corner 
into a scene like the crater of a volcano, only 
reaching miles away all round ; and we de- 
scended a very little and drove on along great 
rolling waves of country, with the mountain 
tops, all crags and ruins, to our left. At three 
we reached Palmiet River, full of palmettos 
and bamboos, and there the horses had " a little 
roll," and Choslullah and his miniature washed 
in the river and prayed, and ate dry bread, and 
drank their tepid water out of a bottle with 
great good-breeding and cheerfulness. Three 
bullock-waggons had outspanned, and the Dutch 



JOURNEY TO CALEDON. 239 

boers and Bastaards (half Hottentots) were all 
drunk. We went into a neat little " public/' 
and had porter and ham sandwiches, for which 
I paid 45-. 6d. to a miserable-looking English- 
woman, w T ho was afraid of her tipsy customers. 
We got to Houw Hoek, a pretty valley at the 
entrance of a mountain gorge, about half-past 
five, and drove up to a mud cottage, half inn, 
half farm r kept by a German and his wife. It 
looked mighty queer, but Choslullah said the 
host was a good old man, and all clean. So 
we cheered up, and asked for food. While the 
neat old woman was cooking it, up galloped 
five fine lads and two pretty-flaxen-haired girls, 
with real German faces, on wild little horses ; 
and one girl tucked up her habit, and waited at 
table, while another waved a green bough to 
drive off the swarms of flies. The chops were 
excellent, ditto bread and butter, and the tea 
tolerable. The parlour was a tiny room with a 
mud floor, half-hatch door into the front, and 
the two bedrooms still tinier and darker, each 
with two huge beds which filled them entirely. 
But Choslullah was right ; they were perfectly 
clean, with heaps of beautiful pillows ; and not 
only none of the creatures of which he spoke 
with infinite terror, but even no fleas. The 
man was delighted to talk to me. His wife 
had almost forgotten German, and the children 



24o LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

did not know a word of it, but spoke Dutch 
and English. A fine, healthy, happy family. 
It was a pretty picture of emigrant life. Cattle, 
pigs, sheep, and poultry, and pigeons innumer- 
able, all picked up their own living, and cost 
nothing ; and vegetables and fruit grow in rank 
abundance where there is water. 1 asked for a 
book in the evening, and the man gave me a 
volume of Schiller. A good breakfast, — and 
we paid ninepence for all. 

This morning we started before eight, as it 
looked gloomy, and came through a superb 
mountain defile, out on to a rich hillocky coun- 
try, covered with miles of corn, all being cut 
as far as the eye could reach, and we passed 
several circular threshing-floors, where the 
horses tread out the grain. Each had a few 
mud hovels near it, for the farmers and men to 
live in during harvest. Altogether, I was most 
lucky, had two beautiful days, and enjoyed the 
journey immensely. It w T as most " abentheuer- 
lich;" the light two-wheeled cart, with four 
wild little horses, and the marvellous brown 
driver, who seemed to be always going to 
perdition, but made the horses do apparently 
impossible things with absolute certainty ; and 
the pretty tiny boy who came to help his uncle, 
and was so clever, and so preternaturally quiet, 
and so very small : then the road through the 



JOURNEY TO C A LED ON. 241 

mountain passes, seven or eight feet wide, with 
a precipice above and below, up which the little 
horses scrambled ; while big lizards, with green 
heads and chocolate bodies, looked pertly at 
us, and a big bright amber-coloured cobra, as 
handsome as he is deadly, wriggled across into 
a hole. 

Nearly all the people in this village are 
Dutch. There is one Malay tailor here, but he 
is obliged to be a Christian at Caledon, though 
Choslullah told me with a grin he w r as a very 
good Malay when he went to Capetown. He 
did not seem much shocked at this double 
religion, stanch Mussulman as he was himself. 
I suppose the blacks " up country " are what 
Dutch slavery made them — mere animals- 
cunning and sulky. The real Hottentot is ex- 
tinct, I believe, in the colony ; what one now 
sees are all " Bastaards," the Dutch name for 
their own descendants by Hottentot women. 
These mongrel Hottentots, who do all the 
work, are an affliction to behold — debased and 
shrivelled with drink, and drunk all day long ; 
sullen wretched creatures — so unlike the bright 
Malays and cheery pleasant blacks and browns 
of Capetown, who never pass you without a 
kind word and sunny smile or broad African 
grin, selon their colour and shape of face. I 
look back fondly to the gracious soft-looking 

R 



/ 



242 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

Malagasse woman who used to give me a chair 
under the big tree near Rathfelders, and a cup 
of " bosjesthee " (herb tea), and talk so prettily 
in her soft voice ; — it is such a contrast to these 
poor animals, who "glower" at one quite un- 
pleasantly. All the hovels I was in at Capetown 
were very fairly clean, and I went into numbers. 
They almost all contained a handsome bed, 
with at least eight pillows. If you only look 
at the door with a friendly glance, you are im- 
plored to come in and sit down, and usually 
offered a " coppj " (cup) of herb tea, which they 
are quite grateful to one for drinking. I never 
saw or heard a hint of " backsheesh/' nor did I 
ever give it, on principle ; and I was always 
recognized and invited to come again with the 
greatest eagerness. " An indulgence of talk " 
from an English u Missis " seemed the height 
of gratification, and the pride and pleasure of 
giving hospitality a sufficient reward. But here 
it is quite different. I suppose the benefits of 
the emancipation were felt at Capetown sooner 
than in the country, and the Malay population 
there furnishes a strong element of sobriety and 
respectability, which sets an example to the other 
coloured people. 

Harvest is now going on, and the so-called 
Hottentots are earning 2s. 6d. a day, with rations 
and wine. But all the money goes at the 



JOURNEY TO C A LED ON. 



243 



" canteen " in drink, and the poor wretched men 
and women look wasted and degraded. The 
children are pretty, and a few of them are half- 
breed girls, who do very well, unless a white 
man admires them ; and then they think it quite 
an honour to have a whitey-brown child, which 
happens at about fifteen, by which age they 
look full twenty. 

W e had very good snipe and wild duck the 

other day, which Capt. D brought home 

from a shooting party. I have got the moth- 
like wings of a golden snipe for R 's hat, 

and those of a beautiful moor- hen. They got 
no " boks," because of the violent south-easter 
which blew where they were. The game is 
fast decreasing, but still very abundant. I saw 
plenty of partridges on the road, but was not 
early enough to see boks, who only show at 
dawn; neither have I seen baboons. I will 
try to bring home some cages of birds — Cape 
canaries and "roode bekjes" (red bills), darling 
little things. The sugar-birds, which are the 
humming-birds of Africa, could not be fed ; but 
Caffre finks, which weave the pendent nests, 
are hardy and easily fed. 

To-day the post for England leaves Caledon, 

so I must conclude this yarn. I wish R 

could have seen the " klip springer," the moun- 
tain deer of South Africa, which Capt D 

r 2 



244 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

brought in to show me. Such a lovely little 
beast, as big as a small kid, with eyes and ears 
like a hare, and a nose so small and dainty. It 
was quite tame and saucy, and belonged to 
some man en route for Capetown. 

Caledon, December, 29/^. 

I am beginning now really to feel better : I 
think my cough is less, and' I eat a great deal 
more. They cook nice clean food here, and have 
some good claret ; which I have been extravagant 
enough to drink, much to my advantage. The 
Cape wine is all so fiery. The climate is im- 
proving too. The glorious African sun blazes 
and roasts one, and the cool fresh breezes pre- 
vent one from feeling languid. I walk from 
six till eight or nine, breakfast at ten, and dine 
at three ; in the afternoon it is generally prac- 
ticable to saunter again, now the weather is 
warmer. I sleep from twelve till two. On 
Christmas-eve it was so warm that I lay in bed 
with the window wide open, and the stars blaz- 
ing in. Such stars ! they are much brighter 
than our moon. The Dutchmen held high 
jinks in the hall, and danced and made a great 
noise. On New Year's Eve they will have 
another ball, and I shall look in. Christmas 
Day was the hottest day — indeed the only hot 
day we have had — and I could not make it out 
at all, or fancy you all cold at home. 



CALEDON. 



245 



I wish you were here to see the curious ways 
and new aspect of everything. This village, 
which, as I have said, is very like Rochefort, 
but hardly so large, is the chef lieu of a district 
the size of one- third of England, A civil com- 
mander resides here, a sort of prefet ; and there 
is an embryo market-place, with a bell hanging 
in a brick arch. When a w r aggon arrives with 
goods, it draws up there, they ring the bell, 
everybody goes to see what is for sale, and the 
goods are sold by auction. My host bought 
potatoes and brandy the other day, and is look- 
ing out for ostrich feathers for me, out of the 
mens hats. 

The other day, while we sat at dinner, all 
the bells began to ring furiously, and Capt. 

D jumped up and shouted Brand! (fire), 

rushed off for a stout leather hat, and ran down 
the street. Out came all the population, black, 
white, and brown, awfully excited, for it was 
blowing a furious north-wester, right up the 
town, and the fire was at the bottom ; and as 
every house is thatched with a dry brown 
thatch, we might all have to turn out and see 
the place in ashes in less than an hour. Luckily, 
it was put out directly. It is supposed to have 
been set on fire by a Hottentot girl, who has 
done the same thing once before, on being 
scolded. There is no water but what runs 



246 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

down the streets in the shot, a paved channel, 
which brings the water from the mountain and 
supplies the houses and gardens. A garden is 
impossible without irrigation, of course, as it 
never rains ; but with it, you may have every- 
thing, all the year round. The people, however, 
are too careless to grow fruit and vegetables. 

How the cattle live is a standing marvel to 
me. The whole veld (common), which extends 
all over the country (just dotted with a few 
square miles of corn here and there), is covered 
with a low thin scrub, about eighteen inches 
high, called rhenoster-bosch- — looking like meagre 
arbor vitae or pale juniper. The cattle and 
sheep will not touch this nor the juicy Hottentot 
fig; but under each little bush, I fancy, they 
crop a few blades of grass, and on this they 
keep in very good condition. The noble oxen, 
with their huge horns (nine or ten feet from tip 
to tip), are never fed, though they work hard, 
nor are the sheep. The horses get a little 
forage (oats, straw and all). I should like you 
to see eight or ten of these swift wiry little 
horses harnessed to a waggon, — a mere flat plat- 
form on wheels. In front stands a wild-looking 
Hottentot, all patches and feathers, and drives 
them best pace, all "in hand," using a whip like 
a fishing-rod, with which he touches them, not 
savagely, but with a skill which would make an 



CALEDON. 



247 



old stage-coachman burst with envy to behold. 
This morning, out on the veld I watched the 
process of breaking-in a couple of colts, which 
were harnessed, after many struggles, second 
and fourth in a team of ten. In front stood a 
tiny foal cuddling its mother, one of the leaders. 
When they started, the foal had its neck through 
the bridle, and I hallooed in a fright ; but the 
Hottentot only laughed, and in a minute it 
had disengaged itself quite coolly and capered 
alongside. The colts tried to plunge, but 
were whisked along, and couldn't, and then 
they stuck out all four feet and skidded along 
a bit ; but the rhenoster bushes tripped them 
up (people drive regardless of roads), and they 
shook their heads and trotted along quite sub- 
dued, without a blow or a word, for the drivers 
never speak to the horses, only to the oxen. 
Colts here get no other breaking, and therefore 
have no paces or action to the eye, but their 
speed and endurance are wonderful. There is 
no such thing as a cock-tail in the country, and 
the waggon teams of wiry little thoroughbreds, 
half Arab, look very strange to our eyes, going 
full tilt. There is a terrible murrain, called the 
lung-sickness, among horses and oxen here, 
every four or five years, but it never touches 
those that are stabled, however exposed to wet 
or wind on the roads. 



248 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



I must describe the house I inhabit, as all 
are much alike. It is whitewashed, with a door 
in the middle and two windows on each side ; 

those on the left are Mrs. D 's bed and 

sitting rooms. On the right is a large room, 
which is mine ; in the middle of the house is a 
spacious hall, with doors into other rooms on 
each side, and into the kitchen, &c. There is 
a yard behind, and a staircase up to the zolder 
or loft, under the thatch, with partitions, where 
the servants and children, and sometimes guests, 
sleep. There are no ceilings ; the floor of the 
zolder is made of yellow wood, and, resting on 
beams, forms the ceiling of my room, and the 
thatch alone covers that. No moss ever grows 
on the thatch, which is brown, with white ridges. 
In front is a stoep, with " blue gums " (Australian 
gum-trees) in front of it, where I sit till twelve, 
when the sun comes on it. These trees pre- 
vail here greatly, as they want neither water 
nor anything else, and grow with incredible 
rapidity. 

We have got a new " boy " (all coloured ser- 
vants are " boys,"^ — a remnant of slavery), and 
he is the type of the nigger slave. A thief, a 
liar, a glutton, a drunkard — but you cant resent 
it; he has a naif, half-foolish, half-knavish 
buffoonery, a total want of self-respect, which 
disarms you. I sent him to the post to inquire 



CALEDON. 



249 



for letters, and the postmaster had been tipsy- 
over night and was not awake. Jack came 
back spluttering threats against " dat domned 
Dutchman. Me no want (like) him; me go 
and kick up dom'd row. What for he no give 
Missis letter ? " &c. I begged him to be 
patient; on which he bonneted himself in a 
violent way, and started off at a pantomime 
walk. Jack is the product of slavery : he pre- 
tends to be a simpleton in order to do less work 
and eat and drink and sleep more than a rea- 
sonable being, and he knows his buffoonery 
will get him out of scrapes. Withal, thoroughly 
good-natured and obliging, and perfectly honest, 
except where food and drink are concerned, 
which he pilfers like a monkey. He worships 

S , and wont allow her to carry anything, 

or to dirty her hands, if he is in the way to do 
it. Some one suggested to him to kiss her, but 
he declined with terror, and said he should be 
hanged by my orders if he did. He is a hide- 
ous little negro, with a monstrous-shaped head, 
every colour of the rainbow on his clothes, and 
a power of making faces which would enchant 
a schoolboy. The height of his ambition would 
be to go to England with me. 

An old " bastaard " woman, married to the 
Malay tailor here, explained to me my popularity 
with the coloured people, as set forth by " dat 



250 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

Malay boy," my driver. He told them he was 
sure I was a " very great Missis," because of my 
" plenty good behaviour ; " that I spoke to him 
just as to a white gentleman, and did not u laugh 
and talk nonsense talk." " Never say, * Here, 
you black fellow/ dat Missis." The English, 
when they mean to be good-natured, are gene- 
rally offensively familiar, and M talk nonsense 
talk," i.e., imitate the Dutch English of the 
Malays and blacks ; the latter feel it the greatest 
compliment to be treated an serieux, and spoken 
to in good English. Choslullah's theory was 
that I must be related to the Queen, in conse- 
quence of my not " knowing bad behaviour." 
The Malays, who are intelligent and proud, of 
course feel the annoyance of vulgar familiarity 
more than the blacks, who are rather awe-struck 
by civility, though they like and admire it. 

Mrs. D— — tells me that the coloured ser- 
vant-girls, with all their faults, are immaculately 
honest in these parts ; and, indeed, as every 
door and window is always left open, even when 
every soul is out, and nothing locked up, there 

must be no thieves. Captain D told me 

he had been in remote Dutch farmhouses, where 
rouleaux of gold were ranged under the thatch 
on the top of the low wall, the doors being 
always left open ; and everywhere the Dutch 
boers keep their money by them, in coin. 



CALEDON. 



251 



Jan. 3rd. — We have had tremendous fes- 
tivities here — a ball on New Year's Eve, and 
another on the 1st. of January — and the shoot- 
ing for Prince Alfred's rifle yesterday. The 
difficulty of music for the ball was solved by 
the arrival of two Malay bricklayers to build 
the new parsonage, and I heard with my own 
ears the proof of what I had been told as to 
their extraordinary musical gifts. When I went 
into the hall, a Dutchman was screeching a 
concertina hideously. Presently in walked a 
yellow Malay, with a blue cotton handkerchief 
on his head, and a half-breed of negro blood 
(very dark brown), with a red handkerchief, and 
holding a rough tambourine. The handsome 
yellow man took the concertina which seemed 
so discordant, and the touch of his dainty 
fingers transformed it to harmony. He played 
dances with a precision and feeling quite un- 
equalled, except by Strauss's band, and a variety 
which seemed endless. I asked him if he could 
read music, at which he laughed heartily, and 
said music came into the ears, not the eyes. 
He had picked it all up from the bands in Cape- 
town, or elsewhere. 

It was a strange sight,— the picturesque group, 
and the contrast between the quiet manners of 
the true Malay and the grotesque fun of the 
half-negro. The latter made his tambourine do 



252 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

duty as a drum, rattled the bits of brass so as 
to produce an indescribable effect, nodded and 
grinned in wild excitement, and drank beer 
while his comrade took water. The dancing 
was uninteresting enough. The Dutchmen 
danced badly, and said not a word, but plodded 
on so as to get all the dancing they could for 
their money. I went to bed at half-past eleven, 
but the ball went on till four. 

Next night there was genteeler company, 
and I did not go in, but lay in bed listening 
to the Malay's playing. He had quite a fresh 
set of tunes, of which several were from the 
Traviata ! 

Yesterday was a real African summer s day. 

The D s had a tent and an awning, one for 

food and the other for drink, on the ground 
where the shooting took place. At twelve 

o'clock Mrs. D went down to sell cold 

chickens, &c, and I went with her, and sat 
under a tree in the bed of the little stream, now 
nearly dry. The sun was such as in any other 
climate would strike you down, but here coup 
de soleil is unknown. It broils you till your 
shoulders ache and your lips crack, but it does 
not make you feel the least languid, and you 
perspire very little ; nor does it tan the skin as 
you would expect. The light of the sun is by 
no means M golden " — it is pure white — and the 



CALEDON. 



253 



slightest shade of a tree or bush affords a 
delicious temperature, so light and fresh is the 
air. They said the thermometer was at about 
130 where I was walking yesterday, but (bar- 
ring the scorch) I could not have believed it. 

It was a very amusing day. The great tall 
Dutchmen came in to shoot, and did but 
moderately, I thought. The longest range was 
five hundred yards, and at that they shot well ; 
at shorter ranges, poorly enough. The best 
man made ten points. But oh ! what figures 
were there of negroes and coloured people ! I 
longed for a photographer. Some coloured 
lads were exquisitely graceful, and composed 
beautiful tableaux vivants> after Murillos beg- 
gar-boys. 

A poor little, very old Bosjesman crept up, 
and was jeered and bullied. I scolded the lad 
who abused him for being rude to an old man, 
whereupon the poor little old creature squatted 
on the ground close by (for which he would 
have been kicked but for me), took off his 
ragged hat, and sat staring and nodding his 
small grey woolly head at me, and jabbering 
some little soliloquy very sotto vote. There was 
something shocking in the timidity with which 
he took the plate of food I gave him, and in 
the way in which he ate it, with the wrong side 
of his little yellow hand, like a monkey. A 



2S4 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

black, who had helped to fetch the hamper, sug- 
gested to me to give him wine instead of meat 
and bread, and make him drunk for fun (the 
blacks and Hottentots copy the white mans 
manners to them, when they get hold of a Bos- 
jesman to practise upon) ; but upon this a hand- 
some West Indian black, who had been cooking- 
pies, fired up, and told him he was a "nasty 
black rascal, and a Dutchman to boot," to insult 
a lady and an old man at once. If you could 
see the difference between one negro and 
another, you would be quite convinced that 
education (i.e., circumstances) makes the race. 
It was hardly conceivable that the hideous, 
dirty, bandy-legged, ragged creature, who looked 
down on the Bosjesman, and the well-made, 
smart fellow, with his fine eyes, jaunty red cap, 
and snow-white shirt and trousers, alert as the 
best German Kellner, were of the same blood ; 
nothing but the colour was alike. 

Then came a Dutchman, and asked for six 
penn'orth of " brood en kaas," and haggled for 
beer; and Englishmen, who bought chickens 
and champagne without asking the price. One 
rich old boer got three lunches, and then " trek- 
ked" (made off) without paying at all. Then 
came a Hottentot, stupidly drunk, with a fiddle, 
and was beaten by a little red-haired Scotch- 
man, and his fiddle smashed. The Hottentot 



CALEDON. 



255 



hit at his aggressor, who then declared he had 
been a policeman, and insisted on taking him 
into custody and to the "Tronk" (prison) on 
his own authority, but was in turn sent flying 
by a gigantic Irishman, who " wouldn't see the 
poor baste abused." The Irishman was a 
farmer; I never saw such a Hercules — and 
beaming with fun and good nature. He was 
very civil, and answered my questions, and 
talked like an intelligent man; but when 

Captain D asked him with an air of some 

anxiety, if he was coming to the hotel, he 
replied, " No, sir, no ; I wouldn't be guilty of 
such a misdemeanour. I am aware that I was 
a disgrace and opprobrium to your house, sir, 
last time I was there, sir. No, sir, I shall sleep 
in my cart, and not come into the presence of 
ladies." Hereupon he departed, and I was in- 
formed that he had been drunk for seventeen 
days, sans desemparer, on his last visit to 
Caledon. However, he kept quite sober on 
this occasion, and amused himself by making 
the little blackies scramble for halfpence in the 
pools left in the bed of the river. Among our 
customers was a very handsome black man, 
with high straight nose, deep-set eyes, and a 
small mouth, smartly dressed in a white felt 
hat, paletot, and trousers. He is the shoe- 
maker, and is making a pair of " Veldschoen " 



256 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

for you, which you will delight in. They are 
what the rough boers and Hottentots wear, 
buff-hide barbarously tanned and shaped, and 
as soft as woollen socks. The Othello-looking 
shoemaker's name is Moor, and his father told 
him he came of a " good breed ; " that was all 
he knew. 

A very pleasing English farmer, who had 
been educated in Belgium, came and ordered a 
bottle of champagne, and shyly begged me to 
drink a glass, whereupon we talked of crops 
and the like ; and an excellent specimen of a 
colonist he appeared ; very gentle and un- 
affected, with homely good sense, and real 
good breeding — such a contrast to the pert airs 
and vulgarity of Capetown and of the people in 
(colonial) high places. Finding we had no 
carriage, he posted off and borrowed a cart of 
one man and harness of another, and put his 
and his son's riding horses to it, to take Mrs. 

D and me home. As it was still early, he 

took us a "little drive ;" and oh, ye gods! what 
a terrific and dislocating pleasure was that! 
At hard gallop, Mr. M — ■ — (with the mildest 
and steadiest air and with perfect safety) took 
us right across country. It is true there were 
no fences ; but over bushes, ditches, lumps of 
rock, water-courses, we jumped, flew, and 
bounded, and up every hill we went at racing 



C ALE DON. 2 5 j 

pace. I arrived at home much bewildered, and 
feeling more like Burger's Lenore than any- 
thing else, till I saw Mr. M s steady, 

pleasant face quite undisturbed, and was in- 
formed that such was the way of driving of 
Cape farmers. 

We found the luckless Jack in such a state 
of furious drunkenness that he had to be dis- 
missed on the spot, not without threats of the 
"Tronk," and once more Kleenboy fills the office 
of boots. He returned in a ludicrous state of 
penitence and emaciation, frankly admitting 
that it was better to work hard and get " plenty 
grub," than to work less and get none ; — still, 
however, protesting against work at all 

Jan. *jtk. — For the last four days it has again 
been blowing a wintry hurricane. Every one 
says that the continuance of these winds so 
late into the summer (this answers to July) is 
unheard of, and must cease soon. In Table 
Bay, I hear a good deal of mischief has been 
done to the shipping. 

I hope my long yarns won't bore you. I put 
down what seems new and amusing to me at 
the moment, but by the time it reaches you, it 
will seem very dull and commonplace. I hear 
that the Scotchman who attacked poor Aria, 
the crazy Hottentot, is a " revival lecturer," and 

s 



258 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

was " simply exhorting him to break his fiddle 
and come to Christ" (the phrase is a clergy- 
man's, I beg to observe) ; and the saints are in- 
dignant that, after executing the pious purpose 
as far as the fiddle went, he was prevented by 
the chief constable from dragging him to the 
Tronk. The " revival " mania has broken out 
rather violently in some places ; the infection 
was brought from St. Helena, I am told. At 
Capetown, old Abdool jemaalee told me that 
English Christians were getting more like 
Malays, and had begun to hold " Kalifahs " 
at Simon's Bay. These are festivals in which 
Mussulman fanatics run knives into their flesh, 
go into convulsions, &c. to the sound of music, 
like the Arab described by Houdin. Of course 
the poor blacks go quite demented. 

I intend to stay here another two or three 
weeks, and then to go to Worcester — stay a 
bit ; Paarl, ditto ; Stellenbosch, ditto — and go 
to Capetown early in March, and in April to 
embark for home. 

Jan. 15th. — No mail in yet. We have had 
beautiful weather the last three days. Captain 

D has been in Capetown, and bought a 

horse, which he rode home seventy-five miles 
in a day and a half, — the beast none the 
worse nor tired. I am to ride him, and so 



C A LED ON. 25 9 

shall see the country if the vile cold winds 
keep off. 

This morning I walked on the veld, and 
met a young black shepherd leading his sheep 
and goats, and playing on a guitar composed 
of an old tin mug covered with a bit of sheep- 
skin and a handle of rough wood, with pegs, 
and three strings of sheepgut. I asked him to 
sing, and he flung himself at my feet in an 
attitude that would make Watts crazy with de- 
light, and crooned queer little mournful ditties. 
I gave him sixpence^ and told him not to get 
drunk. He said, " Oh no ; I will buy bread 
enough to make my belly stiff — I almost never 
had my belly stiff." He likewise informed me 
he had just been in the Tronk (prison), and on 
my asking why, replied : " Oh, for fighting, and 
telling lies ; " Die liebe Unschuld ! (Dear inno- 
cence !) 

Hottentot figs are rather nice — a green fig- 
shaped thing, containing about a spoonful of 
salt-sweet insipid glue, which you suck out. 
This does not sound nice, but it is. The plant 
has a thick, succulent, triangular leaf, creeping 
on the ground, and growing anywhere, without 
earth or water. Figs proper are common here, 
but tasteless ; and the people pick all their fruit 
green, and eat it so too. The children are all 
crunching hard peaches and plums just now, 

s 2 



26o 



LETTERS FROM THE CAFE, 



particularly some little half-breeds near here, 
who are frightfully ugly. Fancy the children 
of a black woman and a red-haired man ; the 
little monsters are as black as the mother, and 
have red wool — you never saw so diabolical an 
appearance. Some of the coloured people are 
very pretty ; for example, a coal-black girl of 
seventeen, and my washerwoman, who is brown, 
They are wonderfully slender and agile, and 
quite old hard-working women have waists you 
could span. They never grow thick and square, 
like Europeans. 

I could write a volume on Cape horses. 
Such valiant little beasts, and so composed in 
temper, I never saw. They are nearly all bays 
—a few very dark grey, which are esteemed ; 
very few white or light grey. I have seen no 
black, and only one dark chestnut. They are 
not cobs, and look "very little of them," and 
have no beauty ; but one of these little brutes, 
ungroomed, half-fed, seldom stabled, will carry 
a six-and-a-half-foot Dutchman sixty miles a 
day, day after day, at a shuffling easy canter, 
six miles an hour. You " off saddle" every 
three hours, and let him roll ; you also let him 
drink all he can get ; his coat shines and his 
eye is bright, and unsoundness is very rare. 
They are never properly broke, and the soft- 
mouthed colts are sometimes made vicious by 



CALEDON. 



261 



the cruel bits and heavy hands ; but by nature 
their temper is perfect. 

Every morning all the horses in the village 
are turned loose, and a general gallop takes 
place to the water tank, where they drink and 
lounge a little ; and the young ones are fetched 
home by their niggers, while the old stagers 
know they will be wanted, and saunter off by 
themselves. I often attend the Houhynymn 
conversazione at the tank, at about seven o'clock, 
and am amused by their behaviour ; and I 
continually wish I could see Ned's face on 
witnessing many equine proceedings here. To 
see a farmer outspan and turn the team of 
active little beasts loose on the boundless veld 
to amuse themselves for an hour or two, sure 
that they will all be there, would astonish him 
a little ; and then to offer a horse nothing but 
a roll in the dust to refresh himself withal ! 

One unpleasant sight here is the skeletons of 
horses and oxen along the roadside; or at times 
a fresh carcase surrounded by a convocation of 
huge serious-looking carrion crows, with neat 
white neck-cloths. The skeletons look like 
wrecks, and make you feel very lonely on the 
wide veld. In this district, and in most, I 
believe, the roads are mere tracks over the 
hard, level earth, and very good they are. 
When one gets rutty, you drive parallel to it, 



262 



LETTERS FROM THE CAFE. 



till the bush is worn out and a new track is 
formed. 

Jan. ijtk. — Lovely weather all the week. 
Summer well set in, 

Caledon, January igtk. 

Till this last week, the weather was pertina- 
ciously cold and windy ; and I had resolved to 
go to Worcester, which lies in a " kessel,' 7 and 
is really hot. But now the glorious African 
summer is come, and I believe this is- the 
weather of Paradise. I got up at four this 
morning, when the Dutchmen who had slept 
here were starting in their carts and waggons. 
It was quite light ; but the moon shone brilliantly 
still, and had put on a bright rose-coloured veil, 
borrowed from the rising sun on the opposite 
horizon. The freshness (without a shadow of 
cold or damp) of the air was indescribable— no 
dew was on the ground. I went up the hill- 
side, along the "sloot" (channel, w r hich supplies 
all our water), into the "kloof" between the 
mountains, and clambered up to the " Venster 
Klip/' from which natural window the view is 
very fine. The flowers are all gone and the 
grass all dead. Rhenoster boschjes and Hot- 
tentot fig are green everywhere, and among the 
rocks all manner of shrubs, and far too much 



C A LED ON. 263 

" Wacht een beetje " {Wait a bit), a sort of 
series of natural fishhooks, which try the robust- 
est patience. Between seven and eight, the 
sun gets rather hot, and I came in and tubbed, 
and sat on the stoep (a sort of terrace, in front 
of every house in South Africa). I breakfast 
at nine, sit on the stoep again till the sun comes 
round, and then retreat behind closed shutters 
from the stinging sun. The air is fresh and 
light all day, though the sun is tremendous ; 
but one has no languid feeling or desire to lie 
about, unless one is sleepy. We dine at two or 
half-past, and at four or five the heat is over, 
and one puts on a shawl to go out in the after- 
noon breeze. The nights are cool, so as always 
to want one blanket. I still have a cough ; but 
it is getting better, so that I can always eat and 
walk. Mine host has just bought a horse, which 
he is going to try with a petticoat to day, and if 
he goes well I shall ride. 

I like this inn-life, because I see all the 
V neighbourhood " — farmers and traders — whom 
I like far better than \he gentility of Capetown. 
I have given letters to England to a " boer," 
who is "going home/' i.e., to Europe, the first 
of his race since the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, when some poor refugees were inveig led 
hither by the Dutch Governor, and oppressed 
worse than the Hottentots. M. de Villiers has 



264 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

had no education at all, and has worked, and 
traded, and farmed, — but the breed tells ; he is 
a pure and thorough Frenchman, unable to 
speak a word of French. When I went in to 
dinner, he rose and gave me a chair with a bow 
which, with his appearance, made me ask, Mon- 
sieur vient d'arriver ? This at once put him 
out and pleased him. He is very unlike a 
Dutchman. If you think that any of the 
French will feel as I felt to this far-distant 
brother of theirs, pray give him a few letters ; 
but remember that he can speak only English 
and Dutch, and a little German. Here his 
name is called " Filljee," but I told him to drop 
that barbarism in Europe ; De Villiers ought to 
speak for itself. He says they came from the 
neighbourhood of Bordeaux. 

The postmaster, Heer Klein, and his old 
Pylades, Heer Ley, are great cronies of mine — 
stout old greybeards, toddling down the hill 
together. I sometimes go and sit on the stoep 
with the two old bachelors, and they take it as 
a great compliment ; and Heer Klein gave me 
my letters all decked with flowers, and wished 
u V rolyke tydings, Mevrouw," most heartily. 
He has also made his tributary mail-cart Hot- 
tentots bring from various higher mountain 
ranges the beautiful everlasting flowers, which 
will make pretty wreaths for J . When I 



C A LED ON. 265 

went to his house to thank him, I found a hand- 
some Malay, with a basket of " klipkaus," a 
shell-fish much esteemed here. Old Klein told 
me they were sent him by a Malay who was 
born in his father's house, a slave, and had been 
his boy and playfellow. Now, the slave is far 
richer than the old young master, and no 
Avaggon comes without a little gift — oranges, 
fish, &c. — for " Wilhem." When Klein goes to 
Capetown, the old Malay seats him in a grand 
chair and sits on a little wooden stool at his 
feet ; Klein begs him, as " Huisheer," to sit pro- 
perly ; but, " Neen Wilhem, Ik zal niet; ik kan 
niet vergeten." " Good boy ! " said old Klein ; 
"good people the Malays." It is a relief, after 
the horrors one has heard of Dutch cruelty, to 
see such an "idyllisches Verhaltniss." I have 
heard other instances of the same fidelity from 
Malays, but they were utterly unappreciated, 
and only told to prove the excellence of slavery, 
and " how well the rascals must have been off/ 3 
I have fallen in love with a Hottentot baby 
here. Her mother is all black, with a broad 
face and soft spaniel eyes, and the father is 
Bastaard ; but the baby (a girl, nine months old) 
has walked out of one of Leonardo da Vinci's 
pictures. I never saw so beautiful a child. 
She has huge eyes with the spiritual look he 
gives to them, and is exquisite in every way, 



266 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



When the Hottentot blood is handsome, it is 
beautiful ; there is a delicacy and softness about 
some of the women which is very pretty, and 
the eyes are those of a good dog. Most of 
them are hideous, and nearly all drink ; but 
they are very clean and honest. Their cottages 
are far superior in cleanliness to anything out 
of England, except in picked places, like some 
parts of Belgium ; and they w r ash as much as 
they can, with the bad water-supply, and the 
English outcry if they strip out of doors to 
bathe. Compared to French peasants, they are 
very clean indeed, and even the children are 
far more decent and cleanly in their habits than 
those of France. The woman who comes here 
to clean and scour is a model of neatness in her 
work and her person (quite black), but she gets 
helplessly drunk as soon as she has a penny to 
buy a glass of wine ; for a penny, a half-pint 
tumbler of very strong and remarkably nasty 
wine is sold at the canteens. 

I have many more " humours " to tell, but 

A can show you all the long story I have 

written. I hope it does not seem very stale 
and decies repetita. All being new and curious 
to the eye here, one becomes long-winded about 
mere trifles. 

One small thing more, The first few shillings 
that a coloured woman has to spend on her 



CALEDON. 



267 



cottage go in — what do you think ? — A grand 
toilet table of worked muslin over pink, all set 
out with little objets—such as they are : if there 
is nothing else, there is that here, as at Cape- 
town, and all along to Simon's Bay. Now, 
w r hat is the use or comfort of a duchesse to 
a Hottentot family ? I shall never see those 
toilets again without thinking of Hottentots — 
what a baroque association of ideas ! I intend, 
in a day or tw r o, to go over to " Gnadenthal," 
the Moravian missionary station founded in 
1736 — the "bliihende Gemeinde von Hotten- 
toten." How little did I think to see it, w r hen 
we smiled at the phrase in old Mr. Steinkopf 's 
sermon years ago in London ! The mission- 
arized Hottentots are not, as it is said, thought 
well of — being even tipsier than the rest ; but I 
may see a full-blood one, and even a true Bos- 
jesman, which is worth a couple of hours' drive ; 
and the place is said to be beautiful. 

This climate is evidently a styptic of great 
power. I shall write a few lines to the Lancet 
about Caledon and its hot baths — " Bad Cale- 
don," as the Germans at Houwd Hoek call it. 
The baths do not concern me, as they are chaly- 
beate ; but they seem very effectual in many 
cases. Yet English people never come here ; 
they stay at Capetown, which must be a furnace 
now, or at Wynberg, which is damp and chill 



268 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

(comparatively) : at most, they get to Stellen- 
bosch. I mean visitors, not settlers; they axe. 
everywhere. I look the colour of a Hottentot. 
Now I must leave off. 

Caledon, January iWu 
Well, I have been to Gnadenthal, and seen 
the " blooming parish/' and a lovely spot it is. 
A large village nestled in a deep valley, sur- 
rounded by high mountains on three sides, and 
a lower range in front. We started early on 
Saturday, and drove over a mighty queer road, 
and through a river. Oh, ye gods ! what a 
shaking and pounding ! We were rattled up 
like dice in a box. Nothing but a Cape cart, 
Cape horses, and a Hottentot driver, above all, 

could have accomplished it. Captain D— 

rode, and had the best of it. On the road we 
passed three or four farms, at all which horses 
were galloping out the grain, or men were 
winnowing it by tossing it up with wooden 
shovels to let the wind blow away the chaff. 
We did the twenty-four miles up and down the 
mountain roads in two hours and a half, with 
our valiant little pair of horses ; it is incredible 
how they go. We stopped at a nice eottage 
on the hillside belonging to a ci-devant slave, 
one Christian Rietz, a white man, with brown 
woolly hair, sharp features, grey eyes, and not 



GNADENTHAL. 269 

woolly moustaches. He said he was a "Scotch 
bastaard," and " le bon sang parlait — tres-haut 
meme/' for a more thriving, shrewd, sensible 
fellow I never saw. His father and master 
had had to let him go when all slaves were 
emancipated, and he had come to Gnadenthal. 
He keeps a little inn in the village, and a shop 
and a fine garden. The cottage we lodged in 
was on the mountain side, and had been built 
for his son, who was dead ; and his adopted 
daughter, a pretty coloured girl exactly like a 
southern Frenchwoman, waited on us, assisted 
by about six or seven other women, who came 
chiefly to stare. Vrouw Rietz was as black as 
a coal, but so pretty ! — a dear, soft, sleek, old 
lady, with beautiful eyes, and the kind pleasant 
ways which belong to nice blacks ; and, though 
old and fat, still graceful and lovely in face, 
hands, and arms. The cottage was thus : — 
One large hall ; my bedroom on the right, 

S 's on the left ; the kitchen behind me ; 

Miss Rietz behind S ; mud floors daintily 

washed over with fresh cow-dung; ceiling of 
big rafters, just as they had grown, on which 
rested bamboo canes close together across the 
rafters, and bound together between each, with 
transverse bamboo — a pretty beehivey effect ; at 
top, mud again, and then a high thatched roof 
and a loft or zolder for forage, &c; the walls of 



270 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

coarse mud, very thick and whitewashed. The 
bedrooms tiny ; beds, clean sweet melies (maize) 
straw, with clean sheets, and eight good pillows 
on each ; glass windows (a great distinction), 
exquisite cleanliness, and hearty civility ; good 
food, well cooked ; horrid tea and coffee, and 
hardly any milk; no end of fruit. In all the 
gardens it hung on the trees thicker than the 
leaves. Never did I behold such a profusion 
of fruit and vegetables. 

But first I must tell what struck me most. 
I asked one of the Herrenhut brethren whether 
there were any real Hottentots, and he said, 
" Yes, one ; " and next morning, as I sat waiting 
for early prayers under the big oak-trees in the 
Plaats (square), he came up, followed by a tiny 
old man hobbling along with a long stick to 
support him. " Here," said he, " is the last 
Hottentot; he is a hundred and seven years 
old, and lives all alone." I looked on the little, 
wizened, yellow face, and was shocked that he 
should be dragged up like a wild beast to be 
stared at. A feeling of pity which felt like re- 
morse fell upon me, and my eyes filled as I rose 
and stood before him, so tall and like a tyrant 
and oppressor, while he uncovered his poor little 
old snow-white head, and peered up in my face. 
I led him to the seat, and helped him to sit 
down, and said in Dutch, " Father, I hope you 



GNADENTHAL. 



271 



are not tired; you are old." t He saw and heard 
as well as ever, and spoke good Dutch in a firm 
voice. " Yes, I am above a hundred years old, 
and alone — quite alone." I sat beside him, 
and he put his head on one side, and looked 
curiously up at me with his faded, but still 
piercing little wild eyes. Perhaps he had a 
perception of what I felt — yet I hardly think 
so ; perhaps he thought I was in trouble, for he 
crept close up to me, and put one tiny brown 
paw into my hand, which he stroked with the 
other, and asked (like most coloured people) 
if I had children. I said, " Yes, at home in 
England ; " and he patted my hand again, and 
said, M God bless them ! " It was a relief to 
feel that he was pleased, for I should have felt 
like a murderer if my curiosity had added a 
moment's pain to so tragic a fate. 

This may sound like sentimentalism ; but 
you cannot conceive the effect of looking on 
the last of a race once the owners of all this 
land, and now utterly gone. His look was not 
quite human, physically speaking ; — a good 
head, small wild-beast eyes, piercing and rest- 
less ; cheek-bones strangely high and prominent, 
nose quite flat, mouth rather wide ; thin shape- 
less lips, and an indescribably small, long, pointed 
chin, with just a very little soft white woolly 
beard ; his head covered with extremely short 



272 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



close white wool, which ended round the poll 
in little ringlets. Hands and feet like an 
English child of seven or eight, and person 
about the size of a child of eleven. He had all 
his teeth, and though shrunk to nothing, was 
very little wrinkled in the face, and not at all 
in the hands, which were dark brown, while 
his face was yellow. His manner, and way of 
speaking w<ere like those of an old peasant in 
England, only his voice was clearer and stronger, 
and his perceptions not blunted by age. He 
had travelled w r ith one of the missionaries in 
the year 1 790, or thereabouts, and remained 
with them ever since. 

I went into the church — a large, clean, rather 
handsome building, consecrated in 1800 — and 
heard a very good sort of Litany, mixed with 
such singing as only black voices can produce. 
The organ w r as beautifully played by a Bastaard 
lad. The Herrenhuters use very fine chants, 
and, the perfect ear and heavenly voices of a 
large congregation, about six hundred, all 
coloured people, made music more beautiful 
than any chorus-singing I ever heard. 

Prayers lasted half an hour; then the con- 
gregation turned out of doors, and the windows 
were opened. Some of the people went away, 
and others w r aited for the " allgemeine Predigt." 
In a quarter of an hour a much larger congre- 



GNADENTHAL. 



273 



gation than the first assembled, the girls all 
with net-handkerchiefs tied round their heads 
so as to look exactly like the ancient Greek 
head-dress with a double fillet — the very pretti- 
est and neatest coiffure I ever saw. The gowns 
were made like those of English girls of the 
same class, but far smarter, cleaner, and gayer 
in colour — pink, and green, and yellow, and 
bright blue ; several were all in white, with 
white gloves. The men and women sit sepa- 
rate, and the women's side was a bed of tulips. 
The young fellows were very smart indeed, 
with muslin or gauze, either white, pink, or 
blue, rolled round their hats (that is universal 
here, on account of the sun). The Hottentots, 
as they are called — that is, those of mixed 
Dutch and Hottentot origin (correctly " Bas- 
taards ") — have a sort of blackguard elegance 
in their gait and figure which is peculiar to 
them ; a mixture of negro or Mozambique 
blood alters it altogether. The girls have the 
elegance without the blackguard look ; all are 
slender, most are tall ; all graceful, all have 
good hands and feet ; some few are handsome 
in the face and many very interesting-looking. 
The complexion is a pale olive-yellow, and the 
hair more or less woolly, face flat, and cheek- 
bones high, eyes small and bright. These are 
by far the most intelligent — equal, indeed, to 

T 



274 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



whites. A mixture of black blood often gives 
real beauty, but takes off from the " air/' and 
generally from the talent ; but then the blacks 
are so pleasant, and the Hottentots are taciturn 
and reserved. The old women of this breed 
are the grandest hags I ever saw ; they are 
clean and well dressed, and tie up their old 
faces in white handkerchiefs like corpses,— faces 
like those of Andrea del Sarto's old women ; 
they are splendid. Also, they are very clean 
people, addicted to tubbing more than any 
others. The maid-of-all-work, who lounges 
about your breakfast table in rags and dis- 
hevelled hair, has been in the river before you 
were awake, or, if that was too far off, in a tub. 
They are also far cleaner in their huts than any 
but the very best English poor. 

The "Predigt " was delivered, after more singf- 
ing, by a missionary cabinet-maker, in Dutch, 
very ranting, and not very wise ; the congre- 
gation was singularly decorous and attentive, 
but did not seem at all excited or impressed 
— just like a well-bred West-end audience, 
only rather more attentive. The service lasted 
three-quarters of an hour, including a short 
prayer and two hymns. The people came out 
and filed off in total silence, and very quickly, 
the tall graceful girls draping their gay silk 
shawls beautifully. There are seven mission- 



GNADENTHAL. 275 

aries, all in orders but one, the blacksmith, and 
all married, except the resident director of the 
boys' boarding-school ; there is a doctor, a car- 
penter, a cabinet-maker, a shoemaker, and a 
storekeeper— a very agreeable man, who had 
been missionary in Greenland and Labrador, 
and interpreter to MacClure. There is one 
" Studirter Theolog." All are Germans, and 
so are their wives. My friend the storekeeper 
married without having ever beheld his wife 
before they met at the altar, and came oh board 
ship at once with her. He said it was as good 
a way of marrying as any other, and that they 
were happy together. She was lying in, so I 
did not see her. At eight years old their 
children are all sent home to Germany to be 
educated, and they seldom see them again. On 
each side of the church are schools, and next to 
them the missionaries' houses on one side of the 
square, and on the other a row of workshops, 
where the Hottentots are taught all manner of 
trades. I have got a couple of knives, made at 
Gnadenthal, for the children. The girls occupy 
the school in the morning, and the boys in the 
afternoon ; half a day is found quite enough of 
lessons in this climate. The infant school was 
of both sexes, but a different set morning and 
afternoon. The missionaries' children were in 
the infant school ; and behind the little blonde 

T 2 



276 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

German " Madels 99 three jet black niggerlings 
rolled over each other like pointer-pups, and 
grinned, and didn't care a straw for the spelling ; 
while the dingy yellow little Bastaards were 
straining their black eyes out, with eagerness 
to answer the master s questions. He and the 
mistress were both Bastaards, and he seemed 
an excellent teacher. The girls were learning 
writing from a master, and Bible history from a 
mistress, also people of colour ; and the stupid 
set (mostly black) were having spelling ham- 
mered into their thick skulls by another yellow 
mistress, in another room. At the boarding 
school were twenty lads, from thirteen up to 
twenty, in training for school-teachers at differ- 
ent stations. Gnadenthal supplies the Church 
of England with them, as well as their own 
stations. There were Caffres, Fingoes, a Man- 
tatee, one boy evidently of some oriental blood, 
with glossy, smooth hair and a copper skin — and 
the rest Bastaards of various hues, some mixed 
with black, probably Mozambique. The Caffre 
lads were splendid young Hercules. They 
had just printed the first book in the Caffre 
language (I've got it for Dr. Hawtrey), — ex- 
tracts from the New Testament, — and I made 
them read the sheets they were going to bind ; 
it is a beautiful language, like Spanish in tone, 
only with a queer " click " in it. The boys 



GNADENTHAL. 



277 



drew, like Chinese, from " copies, " and wrote 
like copper-plate ; they sang some of Mendels- 
sohn's choruses from " St. Paul " splendidly, 
the Caffres rolling out soft rich bass voices, like 
melodious thunder. They are clever at handi- 
crafts, and fond of geography and natural 
history, incapable of mathematics, quick at lan- 
guages, utterly incurious about other nations, 
and would all rather work in the fields than 
learn anything but music ; good boys, honest, 
but trotzig. So much for Caffres, Fingoes, &c. 
The Bastaards are as clever as whites, and 
more docile — so the " rector" told me. The 
boy who played the organ sang the " Lorelei " 
like an angel, and played us a number of waltzes 
and other things on the piano, but he was too 
shy to talk ; while the Caffres crowded round 
me, and chattered away merrily. The Manta- 
tees, whom I cannot distinguish from Caffres, 
are scattered all over the colony, and rival the 
English as workmen and labourers — fine stal- 
wart, industrious fellows. Our little " boy " 
Kleenboy hires a room for fifteen shillings a 
month, and takes in his compatriots as lodgers 
at half a crown a week — the usurious little 
rogue ! His chief, one James, is a bricklayer 
here, and looks and behaves like a prince. It 
is fine to see his black arms, ornamented with 
silver bracelets, hurling huge stones about. 



278 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

All Gnadenthal is wonderfully fruitful, being 
well watered, but it is not healthy for whites ; I 
imagine, too hot and damp. There are three 
or four thousand coloured people there, under 
the control of the missionaries, who allow no 
canteens at all. The people may have what 
they please at home, but no public drinking- 
place is allowed, and we had to take our own 
beer and wine for the three days. The gardens 
and burial-ground are beautiful, and the square 
is entirely shaded by about ten or twelve superb 
oaks; nothing prettier can be conceived. It 
is not popular in the neighbourhood. " You 
see it makes the d — d niggers cheeky " to have 
homes of their own — and the orirls are said to 

o 

be immoral. The English are almost equally 
contemptuous ; but there is one great difference. 
My host, for instance, always calls a black "a 
d — d nig-aer ; " but if that nio-ofer is wronged or 
oppressed he fights for him, or bails him out of 
the Tronk, and an English jury gives a just 
verdict ; while a Dutch one simply finds for a 
Dutchman, against any one else, and always 
against a dark man. I believe this to be true, 
from what I have seen and heard ; and certainly 
the coloured people have a great preference for 
the English. 

I am persecuted by the ugliest and blackest 
Mozambiquer I have yet seen, a bricklayers 



GNA DENTHAL. 279 

labourer, who can speak English, and says he 
was servant to an English captain — " Oh, a 
good fellow he was, only he's dead ! " He now 
insists on my taking him as a servant. " I 
dessay your man at home is a good chap, and 
I'll be a good boy, and cook very nice." He is 
thick-set and short and strong. Nature has 
adorned him with a cock-eye and a yard of 
mouth, and art, with a prodigiously tall white 
chimney-pot hat with the crown out, a cotton 
nightcap, and a wondrous congeries of rags. 
He professes to be cook, groom, and " walley," 
and is sure you would be pleased with his 
attentions. 

Well', to go back to Gnadenthal. I wandered 
all over the village on Sunday afternoon, and 
peeped into the cottages. All were neat and 
clean, with good dressers of crockery, the very 
poorest, like the worst in Weybridge sandpits ; 
but they had no glass windows, only a wooden 
shutter, and no doors ; a calico curtain, or a sort 
of hurdle supplying its place. The people 
nodded and said " Good day ! " but took no 
further notice of me, except the poor old Hot- 
tentot, who was seated on a doorstep. He rose 
and hobbled up to meet me and take my hand 
again. He seemed to enjoy being helped along 
and seated down carefully, and shook and 
patted my hand repeatedly when I took leave 



2 So LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

of him. At this the people stared a good deal, 
and one woman came to talk to me. 

In the evening I sat on a bench in the square, 
and saw the people go in to " Abendsegen." 
The church was lighted, and as I sat there and 
heard the lovely singing, I thought it was im- 
possible to conceive a more romantic scene. 
On Monday I saw all the schools, and then 
looked at the great strong Caffre lads playing 
in the square. One of them stood to be pelted 
by five or six others, and as the stones came, he 
twisted and turned and jumped, and was hardly 
ever hit, and when he was, he didn't care, 
though the others hurled like catapults. It 
was the most wonderful display of activity and 
grace, and quite incredible that such a huge 
fellow should be so quick and light. When I 
found how comfortable dear old Mrs. Rietz 
made me, I was sorry I had hired the cart and 
kept it to take me home, for I would gladly 
have stayed longer, and the heat did me no 
harm ; but I did not like to throw away a pound 
or two, and drove back that evening. Mrs. 
Rietz told me her mother was a Mozambiquer. 
"And your father?" said I. "Oh, I don't 
know. My mother was only a slave!' She, 
too, was a slave, but said she " never knew it," 
her " missis " was so good ; a Dutch lady, at a 
farm I had passed, on the road, who had a 



GNADENTHAL. 



281 



hundred and fifty slaves. I liked my Hotten- 
tot hut amazingly, and the sweet brown bread, 
and the dinner cooked so cleanly on the bricks 
in the kitchen. The walls were whitewashed 
and adorned with wreaths of everlasting flowers 
and some quaint old prints from Loutherbourg 
-—pastoral subjects, not exactly edifying. 

Well, I have prosed unconscionably, so adieu 
for the present. 

Feb. 3rd. — Many happy returns of your birth- 
day, dear . I had a bottle of champagne 

to drink your health, and partly to swell the 
bill, which these good people make so moderate, 
that I am half ashamed. I get everything that 

Caledon can furnish for myself and S for 

15/. a month. 

On Saturday we got the sad news of Prince 
Albert's death, and it created real consternation 
here. What a thoroughly unexpected calamity ! 
Every one is already dressed in deep mourning. 
It is more general than in a village of the same 
size at home — (how I have caught the colonial 
trick of always saying " home " for England ! 
Dutchmen who can barely speak English, 
and never did or will see England, equally 
talk of "news from home"). It also seems, by 
the papers of the 24th of December, which 
came by a steamer the other day, that war is 



282 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 



imminent. I shall have to wait for convoy, I 
suppose, as I object to walking the plank from 
a Yankee privateer. I shall wait here for the 
next mail, and then go back to Capetown, 
stopping by the way, so as to get there early 
in March, and arrange for my voyage. The 
weather had a relapse into cold, and an attempt 
at rain. Pity it failed, for the drought is dread- 
ful this year, chiefly owing to the unusual 
quantity of sharp drying winds — a most un- 
lucky summer for the country and for me. 

My old friend Klein, who told me several 
instances of the kindness and gratitude of for- 
mer slaves, poured out to me the misery he had 
undergone from the " ingratitude " of a certain 
Rosina, a slave-girl of his. She was in her 
youth handsome, clever, the best horsebreaker, 
bullock-trainer and driver, and hardest worker 
in the district. She had two children by Klein, 
then a young fellow ; six by another white man, 
and a few more by two husbands of her own 
race ! But she was of a rebellious spirit, and 
took to drink. After the emancipation, she 
used to go in front of Klein's windows and 
read the statute in a loud voice on every anni- 
versary of the day ; and as if that did not en- 
rage him enough, she pertinaciously (whenever 
she was a little drunk) kissed him by main 
force every time she met him in the street, 



GNA DENTHA L. 



exclaiming, " Aha ! when I young and pretty 
slave-girl you make kiss me then ; now I ugly, 
drunk, dirty old devil and free woman, I kiss 
you ! " Frightful retributive justice ! I strug- 
gled hard to keep my countenance, but the fat 
old fellow's good-humoured, rueful face was too 
much for me. His tormentor is dead, but he 
retains a painful impression of her " ingrati- 
tude/' 

Our little Mantatee "Kleenboy" has again, 
like Jeshurun, u waxed fat and kicked," as soon 
as he had eaten enough to be once more plump 
and shiny. After his hungry period, he took 
to squatting on the stoep, just in front of 
the hall-door, and altogether declining to do 
anything ; so he is superseded by an equally 
ugly little red-headed Englishman. The Irish 
housemaid has married the German baker (a 
fine match for her ! ), and a dour little Scotch 
Presbyterian has come up from Capetowm in 
her place. Such are the vicissitudes of colonial 
housekeeping ! The only " permanency " is the 

old soldier of Captain D 's regiment, who is 

barman in the canteen, and not likely to leave 
" his honour," and the coloured girl, who im- 
proves on acquaintance. She wants to ingra- 
tiate herself with me, and get taken to England. 
Her father is an Englishman, and of course the 
brown mother and her large family always live 



2S4 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



in the fear of his " going home 99 and ignoring 
their existence ; a marriage with the mother of 
his children would be too much degradation for 
him to submit to. Few of the coloured people 
are ever married, but they don't separate oftener 
than really married folks. Bill, the handsome 
West Indian black, married my pretty washer- 
woman Rosalind, and was thought rather assu- 
ming because he was asked in church and 
lawfully married ; and she wore a handsome 
lilac silk gown and a white wreath and veil, and 
very well she looked in them. She had a child 
of two years old, which did not at all disconcert 
Bill ; but he continues to be dignified, and 
won't let her gfo and wash clothes in the river 
because the hot sun makes her ill, and it is not 
fit work for women. 

Sunday qth. — Last night a dance took place 
in a house next door to this, and a party of 
boers attempted to go in, but were repulsed by 
a sortie of the young men within. Some of the 
more peaceable boers came in here and wanted 
ale, which was refused, as they were already 
very vinous; so they imbibed ginger-beer, 
whereof one drank thirty-four bottles to his 
own share ! Inspired by this drink, they began 
to quarrel, and were summarily turned out. 
They spent the whole night, till five this morn- 



GNADENTHAL. 



2S5 



ing, scuffling and vociferating in the street. 
The constables discreetly stayed in bed, dis- 
playing the true Dogberry spirit, which leads 
them to take up Hottentots, drunk or sober, 
to show their zeal, but carefully to avoid med- 
dling with stalwart boers, from six to six and a 
half feet high and strong in proportion. The 
jabbering of Dutch brings to mind Demosthenes 
trying to outroar a stormy sea with his mouth 
full of pebbles. The hardest blows are those 
given with the tongue, though much pulling of 
hair and scuffling takes place. " Verdomde 
Schmeerlap ! " — " Donder and Bliksem ! am I 
a verdomde Schmeerlap ? " — i% Ja, u is," &c. &c. 
I could not help laughing heartily as I lay in 
bed, at hearing the gambols of these Titan 
cubs ; for this is a boer's notion of enjoying 
himself. This morning, I hear, the street was 
strewn with the hair they had pulled out of 
each other's heads. All who come here make 

love to S ; not by describing their tender 

feelings, but by enumerating the oxen, sheep, 
horses, land, money, &c. of which they are pos- 
sessed, and whereof, by the law of this colony, 
she would become half-owner on marriage. 
There is a fine handsome Van Steen, who is 

very persevering ; but S does not seem to 

fancy becoming Mevrouw at all. The demand 
for English girls as wives is wonderful here. 



236 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



The nasty cross little ugly Scotch maid has 
had three offers already, in one fortnight ! 

Feb. \%th.—\ expect to receive the letters 
by the English mail to-morrow morning, and to 
go to Worcester on Thursday. On Saturday 
the young doctor— a good-humoured, jolly, big, 
young Dutchman — drove me, with his pretty 
little greys, over to two farms ; at one I ate 
half a huge melon, and at the other, uncounted 
grapes. We poor Europeans don't know what 
fruit can be, I must admit. The melon was a 
foretaste of paradise, and the grapes made one's 
fingers as sticky as honey, and had a muscat 
fragrance quite inconceivable. They looked 
like amber eggs. The best of it is, too, that in 
this climate stomach-aches are not. We all eat 
grapes, peaches, and figs, all day long. Old 
Klein sends me, for my own daily consumption, 
about thirty peaches, three pounds of grapes, 
and apples, pears, and figs besides — "just a 
little taste of fruits ; " only here they will pick 
it all unripe. 

Feb. 19th. — The post came in late last night, 
and old Klein kindly sent me my letters at 
near midnight. The post goes out this even- 
ing, and the hot wind is blowing, so I can only 
write to you, and a line to my mother. I feel 



GXADEXTHAL, 



287 



really better now. I think the constant eatine 
of grapes has done me much good. 

The Dutch cart- owner was so extortionate, 
that I am going to wait a few days, and write 
to my dear Malay to come up and drive me 
back. It is better than having to fight the 
Dutch monopolist in every village, and getting 
drunken drivers and bad carts after all. I shall 
go round all the same. The weather has been 
beautiful ; to-day there is a wind, which comes 
about two or three times in the year : it is not 
depressing, but hot, and a bore, because one 
must shut every window or be stifled with 
dust 

The people are burning the veld all about, 
and the lurid smoke by day and flaming hill- 
sides by night are very striking. The ashes of 
the Bosh serve as manure for the young grass, 
which will sprout in the autumn rains. Such 
nights ! Such a moon ! I walk out after dark 
when it is mild and clear, and can read any 
print by the moonlight, and see the distant 
landscape as well as by day. 

Old Klein has just sent me a haunch of bok, 
and the skin and hoofs, which are pretty. 



238 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



Caledon, Sunday, 

You must have fallen into second childhood 
to think of printing such rambling hasty scrawls 
as I write. I never could write a good letter; 
and unless I gallop as hard as I can, and don't 
stop to think, I can say nothing ; so all is con- 
fused and unconnected : only I fancy you will 
be amused by some of my " impressions." I 
have written to my mother an accurate account 
of my health. I am dressed and out of doors 
never later than six, now the weather makes it 
possible. It is surprising how little sleep one 
wants. I go to bed at ten and often am up 
at four. 

I made friends here the other day with a 
lively dried-up little old Irishman, who came 
out at seven years old a pauper-boy. He has 
made a fortune by " going on Togt" {German, 
Tansch), as thus ; he charters two waggons, 
twelve oxen each, and two Hottentots to each 
waggon, leader and driver. The waggons he 
fills with cotton, hardware, &c. &c. — an ambu- 
latory village " shop " — and goes about fifteen 
miles a day, on and on, into the far interior, 
swappingbaftas (calico), punjums (loose trowsers), 
and voerschitz (cotton gownpieces), pronounced 
" foossy," against oxen and sheep. When all is 
gone he swaps his waggons against more oxen 
and a horse> and he and his four " totties " drive 



CALEDON. 289 

home the spoil ; and he has doubled or trebled 
his venture. En route home, each day they 
kill a sheep, and eat it all. " What ! " says I ; 
" the whole ? " " Every bit. I always take 
one leg an4 the liver for myself, and the totties 
roast the rest, and melt all the fat and entrails 
down in an iron pot and eat it with a wooden 
spoon." Je nen revenais pas. " What ! the 
whole leg and liver at one meal ? " " Every 
bit ; ay, and you'd do the same, ma'am, if you 
were there." No bread, no salt, no nothing — 
mutton and water. The old fellow was quite 
poetic and heroic in describing the joys and 
perils of Togt. I said I should like to go too ; 
and he bewailed having settled a year ago in a 
• store at Swellendam, " else he'd ha' fitted up a 
waggon all nice and snug for me, and shown me 
w r hat going on Togt was like. Nothing like it 
for the health, ma'am ; and beautiful shooting." 
My friend had 700/. in gold in a carpet bag, 
without a lock, lying about on the stoep. " All 
right ; nobody steals money or such like here. 
I'm going to pay bills in Capetown." 

Tell my mother that a man would get from 
2I. to 4/. a month wages, with board, lodging, 
&c. all found, and his wife from iL 10s. to 2 1. 
a month and everything found, according to 
abilities and testimonials. Wages are enormous, 
and servants at famine price ; emigrant ships 

u 



290 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

are cleared off in three days, and every ragged 
Irish girl in place somewhere. Four pounds a 
month, and food for self, husband, and children, 
is no uncommon pay for a good cook ; and 
after all her cookery may be poor enough. 
My landlady at Capetown gave that. The 
housemaid had only il. 5s. a month, but told 
me herself she had taken 3/. in one week in 
41 tips." She was an excellent servant. Up 
country here the wages are less, but the com- 
fort greater, and the chances of "getting on" 
much increased. But I believe Algoa Bay or 
Grahamstown are by far the best fields for new 
colonists, and (I am assured) the best climate 
for lung diseases. The wealthy English mer- 
chants of Port Elizabeth (Algoa Bay) pay best. 
It seems to me, as far as I can learn, that 
every really working man or woman can thrive 
here. 

My German host at Houwd Hoek came out 
twenty-three years ago, he told me, without a 
" heller," and is now the owner of cattle and 
land and horses to a large amount. But then 
the Germans work, while the Dutch dawdle 
and the English drink. " New wine" is a 
penny a glass (half a pint), enough to blow 
your head off, and M Cape smoke " (brandy, 
like vitriol) ninepence a bottle — that is the real 
calamity. If the Cape had the grape disease 



C ALE DON. 291 

as badly as Madeira, *it would be the making of 
the colony. 

I received a message from my Malay friends, 
Abdool Jemaalee and Betsy, anxious to know 
" if the Missis had good news of her children, 
for bad news would make her sick." Old 
Betsy and I used to prose about young Abdur- 
rachman and his studies at Mecca, and about 
my children, with more real heartiness than you 
can fancy. We were not afraid of boring each 
other; and pious old Abdool sat and nodded 
and said, " May Allah protect them all ! " as a 
refrain ;— « Allah, il Allah ! " 

Caledon, February 21 sL 

This mornings post brought your packet, 
and the announcement of an extra mail to- 
night; so I can send you a P.S. I hear that 
Capetown has been pestilential, and as hot as 
Calcutta. It is totally undrained, and the 
Mozambiquers are beginning to object to acting 
&s scavengers to each separate house. The 
"vidanges" are more barbarous even than in 
Paris. Without the south-easter (or " Cape 
doctor") they must have fevers, &c; and though 
too rough a practitioner for me, he benefits the 
general health. Next month the winds abate, 
but last week an omnibus was blown over on the 
Rondebosch road, which is the most sheltered 

u 2 



292 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

spot, and inhabited by Capetown merchants. 
I have received all the Saturday Reviews quite 
safe, likewise the books, Mendelssohn's letters, 
and the novel. I have written for my dear 
Choslullah to fetch me. The Dutch farmers 
don't know how to charge enough ; moreover, 
the Hottentot drivers get drunk, and for two 
lone women that is not the thing. I pay my 
gentle Malay thirty shillings a day, which, for a 
cart and four and such a jewel of a driver, is 
not outrageous ; and I had better pay that for 
the few r days I wait on the road, than risk bad 
carts, tipsy Hottentots, and extortionate boers. 

This intermediate country between the 
" Central African wilderness" and Capetown has 
been little frequented. I went to the Church 
Mission School with the English clergyman 
yesterday. You know I don't believe in every 
kind of missionaries, but I do believe that, in 
these districts, kind, judicious English clergy- 
men are of great value. The Dutch pastors 
still remember the distinction between " Christen- 
menschen " and 14 Hottentoten ;" but the Church 
Mission Schools teach the Anglican Catechism 
to every child that will learn, and the congre- 
gation is as piebald as Harlequin's jacket. A 
pretty, coloured lad, about eleven years old, 
answered my questions in geography with great 
quickness and some wit. I said, "Show me 



CALEDON. 293 

the country you belong to." He pointed to 
England, and when I laughed, to the Cape. 
" This is where we are, but that is the country 
I belong to!' I asked him how we were governed, 
and he answered quite right. " How is the 
Cape governed ? " " Oh,, we have a Parliament 
too, and Mr. Silberbauer is the man we send." 
Boys and girls of all ages were mixed, but no 
blacks. I don t think they will learn, except 
on compulsion, as at Gnadenthal. 

I regret to say that Bill's wife has broken his 
head with a bottle, at the end of the honey- 
moon. I fear the innovation of being- married 
at church has not had a good effect, and that 
his neighbours may quote Mr. Peachum. 

I was offered a young lion yesterday, but I 
hardly think it would be an agreeable addition 
to the household at Esher. 

I hear that Worcester, Paarl, and Stellen- 
bosch are beautiful, and the road very desolate 
and grand ; one mountain pass takes six hours 
to cross. I should not return to Capetown so 

early, but poor Captain J has had his leg 

smashed and amputated, so I must look out for 
myself in the matter of ships. Whenever it is 
hot, I am well, for the heat here is so light and 
dry. The wind tries me, but we have little 
here compared to the coast. I hope that the 
voyage home will do me still more good ; but 



294 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

• I will not sail till April, so as to arrive in June. 
May, in the Channel, would not do. 

How I wish I could send you the fruit now 
on my table — amber-coloured grapes, yellow 
waxen apples streaked with vermilion in fine 
little lines, huge peaches, and tiny green figs ! 
I must send dear old Klein a little present from 
England, to show that I don't forget my Dutch 
adorer. I wish I could bring you the " biltong " 
he sent me — beef or bok dried in the sun in 
strips, and slightly salted ; you may carry enough 
in your pocket to live on for a fortnight, and it 
is very good as a little " relish/' The partridges 
also have been welcome, and we shall eat the 
tiny haunch of bok to-day. 

Mrs. D is gone to Capetown to get ser- 
vants and will return in my cart. S is 

keeping house meanwhile, much perturbed by 
the placid indolence of the brown girl. The 
stable-man cooks, and very well too. This 
is colonial life — a series of makeshifts and 
difficulties ; but the climate is fine, people 
feel well and make money, and I think it is 
not an unhappy life. I have been most for- 
tunate in my abode, and can say, without 
speaking cynically, that I have found " my 
warmest welcome at an inn." Mine host is a 
rough soldier, but the very soul of good 
nature and good feeling ; and his wife is a 



CALEDON. 295 

very nice person — so cheerful, clever, and kind- 
hearted. 

I should like to bring home the little Mada- 
gascar girl from Rathfelders, or a dear little 
mulatto who nurses a brown baby here, and is 
so clean and careful and " pretty behaved, " — 
but it would be a great risk. The brown babies 
are ravishing — so fat and jolly and funny. 

One great charm of the people here is, that 
no one expects money or gifts, and that all 
civility is gratis. Many a time I finger small 
coin secretly in my pocket, and refrain from 
giving it, for fear of spoiling this innocence. I 
have not once seen a look implying " back- 
sheesh/' and begging is unknown. But the 
people are reserved and silent, and have not 
the attractive manners of the darkies of Cape- 
town and the neighbourhood. 

Caledon, February 2id. 

Yesterday Captain D gave me a very 

nice caross of blessbok skins, which he got from 
some travelling trader. The excellence of the 
CafTre skin-dressing and sewing is, I fancy, un- 
equalled ; the bok-skins are as soft as a kid 
glove, and have no smell at all. 

In the afternoon the young doctor drove me, 
in his little gig-cart and pair (the lightest and 
swiftest of conveyances), to see a wine-farm. 



296 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

The people were not at work, but we saw the 
tubs and vats, and drank " most." The grapes 
are simply trodden by a Hottentot, in a tub 
with a sort of strainer at the bottom, and then 
thrown — skins, stalks, and all — into vats, where 
the juice ferments for twice twenty-four hours ; 
after which it is run into casks, which are left 
with the bung out for eight days ; then the wine 
is drawn off into another cask, a little sulphur 
and brandy are added to it, and it is bunged 
down. Nothing can be conceived so barbarous. 

I have promised Mr. M to procure and 

send him an exact account of the process in 
Spain. It might be a real service to a most 

worthy and amiable man. Dr. M also 

would be glad of a copy. They literally know 
nothing about wine-makinof here, and with such 
matchless grapes I am sure it ought to be good. 
Altogether, " der alte Schlendrian " prevails at 
the Cape to an incredible degree. 

If two " Heeren M " call on you, please 

be civil to them. I don't know them person- 
ally, but their brother is the doctor here, and the 
most good-natured young fellow I ever saw. 
If I were returning by Somerset instead of 
Worcester, I might put up at their parents' 
house and be sure of a welcome ; and I can 
tell you civility to strangers is by no means of 
course here. I don't wonder at it ; for the old 



CALEDON. 297 

Dutch families are gentlefolks of the good dull 
old school, and the English colonists can scarcely 
suit them. In the few instances in which I 
have succeeded in thawing a Dutchman, I have 
found him wonderfully good-natured ; and the 
different manner in which I was greeted when 
in company with the young doctor showed the 
feeling at once. The dirt of a Dutch house is 
not to be conceived. I have had sights in bed- 
rooms in very respectable houses which I dare 
not describe. The coloured people are just as 
clean. The young doctor (who is much Angli- 
cised) tells me that, in illness, he has to break 
the windows in the farmhouses — they are built 
not to open ! The boers are below the English 
in manners and intelligence, and hate them for 
their " go-ahead " ways, though they seem slow 
enough to me. As to drink, I fancy it is six of 
one and half a dozen of the other ; but the 
English are more given to eternal drams, and 
the Dutch to solemn drinking bouts. I can't 
understand either, in this climate, which is so 
stimulating, that I more often drink ginger-beer 
or water than wine — a bottle of sherry lasted 
me a fortnight, though I was ordered to drink 
it ; somehow, I had no mind to it. 

27th. — The cart could not be got till the day 
before yesterday, and yesterday Mrs. D 



298 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

arrived in it with two new Irish maids ; it saved 
her 3/., and I must have paid equally. The 
horses were very tired, having been hard at 
w r ork carrying Malays all the week to Con- 
stantia and back, on a pilgrimage to the tomb 
of a Mussulman saint ; so to-day they rest, and 
to-morrow I go to Villiersdorp. Choslullah 
has been appointed driver of a post-cart; he 
tried hard to be allowed to pay a rempla$ant % 
and to fetch " his missis," but was refused leave ; 
and so a smaller and blacker Malay has come, 
whom Choslullah threatened to curse heavily 
if he failed to take great care of " my missis" 
and be a "good boy." Ramadan begins on 
Sunday, and my poor driver can't even prepare 
for it by a good feast, as no fowls are to be 
had here just now, and he can't eat profanely 
killed meat. Some pious Christian has tried to 
burn a Mussulman martyrs tomb at Eerste 
River, and there were fears the Malays might 
indulge in a little revenge ; but they keep quiet. 
I am to go with my driver to eat some of the 
fe^st (of Bairam, is it not ?) at his priests when 
Ramadan ends, if I am in Capetown, and also 
am asked to a wedding at a relation of Chos- 
lullah's. It was quite a pleasure to hear the 
kindly Mussulman talk, after these silent Hot- 
tentots. The Malays have such agreeable 
manners ; so civil, without the least cringing or 



WORCESTER. 299 

Indian obsequiousness. I daresay they can be 
very " insolent " on provocation ; but I have 
always found among them manners like old- 
fashioned French ones, but quieter; and they 
have an affectionate way of saying u my missis " 
when they know one, which is very nice to 
hear. It is getting quite chilly here already ; 
cold night and morning ; and I shall be glad to 
descend off this plateau into the warmer regions 
of Worcester, &c. I have just bought eight 
splendid ostrich feathers for il. of my old Togt- 
handler friend. In England they would cost 
from eighteen to twenty-five shillings each. I 
have got a rebok and klipspringer skin for you ; 
the latter makes a saddle-cloth which defies 
sore backs ; they were given me by Klein and 
a farmer at Palmiet River. The flesh w^as poor 
stuff, white and papery. The Hottentots can't 
" bray " the skins as the Caffres do ; and the 
woman who did mine asked me for a trifle 
beforehand, and got so drunk that she let them 
dry halfway in the process, consequently they 
don't look so well. 

Worcester, Sunday, March 2nd. 
Oh, such a journey ! Such country ! Pearly 
mountains and deep blue sky, and an impassable 
pass to walk down, and baboons, and secretary 
birds, and tortoises ! I couldn't sleep for it all 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



last night, tired as I was with the unutterably 
bad road, or track rather. 

Well, we left Caledon on Friday, at ten 
o'clock, and though the weather had been cold 
and unpleasant for two days, I had a lovely 
morning, and away we went to Villiersdorp 
(pronounced Filjeesdorp). It is quite a tiny 
village, in a sort of Rasselas-looking valley. 
We were four hours on the road, winding along 
the side of a mountain ridge, which we finally 
crossed, with a splendid view of the sea at the 
far-distant end of a huge amphitheatre formed 
by two ridges of mountains, and on the other 
side the descent into Filjeesdorp. The whole 
way we saw r no human being or habitation, 
except one shepherd, from the time we passed 
Buntjes kraal, about two miles out of Caledon. 
The little drinking-shop would not hold tra- 
vellers, so I went to the house of the storekeeper 
(as the clergyman of Caledon had told me I 
might), and found a most kind reception. Our 
host was English, an old man-of-war's man, 
with a gentle, kindly Dutch wife, and the best- 
mannered children I have seen in the colony. 
They gave us clean, comfortable beds and a 
good dinner, and wine ten years in the cellar ; in 
short, the best of hospitality. I made an effort 
to pay for the entertainment next looming, 
when, after a good breakfast, we started loaded 



WORCESTER. 301 

With fruit, but the kind people would not hear 
of it, and bid me good-bye like old friends. At 
the end of the valley we went a little up-hill, 
and then found ourselves at the top of a pass 
down into the level below. S — — and I burst 
out with one voice, " How beautiful ! " Sabaal, 
our driver, thought the exclamation was an 
ironical remark on the road, which, indeed, 
appeared to be exclusively intended for goats. 
I suggested walking down, to which, for a 
wonder, the Malay agreed. I was really curious 
to see him get down with two wheels and four 
horses, where I had to lay hold from time to 
time in walking. The track was excessively 
steep, barely wide enough, and as slippery as a 
flagstone pavement, being the naked mountain- 
top, which is bare rock. However, all went 
perfectly right. 

How shall I describe the view from that 
pass ? In front was a long, long level valley, 
perhaps three to five miles broad (I can't judge 
distance in this atmosphere ; a house that looks 
a quarter of a mile off is two miles distant). 
At the extreme end, in a little gap between two 
low brown hills that crossed each other, one 
could just see Worcester — five hours' drive off. 
Behind it, and on each side the plain, mountains 
of every conceivable shape and colour ; the 
strangest cliffs and peaks and crags toppling 



302 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

every way, and tinged with all the colours of 
opal ; chiefly delicate, pale lilac and peach 
colour, but varied with red brown and Titian 
green. In spite of the drought, water sparkled 
on the mountain-sides in little glittering threads, 
and here and there in the plain ; and pretty 
farms were dotted on either side at the very 
bottom of the slopes towards the mountain-foot 
The sky of such a blue ! (it is deeper now by 
far than earlier in the year). In short, I never 
did see anything so beautiful. It even sur- 
passed Hottentot's Holland. On we went, 
straight along the valley, crossing drift after 
drift ; — a drift is the bed of a stream more or 
less dry ; in which sometimes you are drowned, 
sometimes only pounded, as was our hap. The 
track was incredibly bad, except for short bits, 
where ironstone prevailed. However, all went 
well, and on the road I chased and captured a 
pair of remarkably swift and handsome little 
" Schelpats." That you may duly appreciate 
such a feat of valour and activity, I will inform 
you that their English name is " tortoise." On 
the strength of this effort, we drank a bottle of 
beer, as it was very hot and sandy ; and our 
Malay was a wet enough Mussulman to take 
his full share in a modest way, though he de-, 
clined wine or " Cape smoke Soopjes " (drams) 
with aversion. No sooner had we got under 



WORCESTER. 303 

weigh again, than Sabaal pulled up and said, 
u There are the Baviaans Missis want to see ! " 
and so they were. At some distance by the 
river was a great brute, bigger than a New- 
foundland dog, stalking along with the hideous 
baboon walk, and tail vehemently cocked up ; a 
troop followed at a distance, hiding and dodging 
among the palmiets. They were evidently en 
route to rob a garden close to them, and had 
sent a great stout fellow ahead to reconnoitre. 
" He see Missis, and feel sure she not got a 
gun ; if man come on horseback, you see 'em 
run like devil/ 9 We had not that pleasure, and 
left them, on felonious thoughts intent. 

The road got more and more beautiful as we 
neared Worcester and the mountains grew 
higher and craggier. Presently, a huge bird, 
like a stork on the wing, pounced down close 
by us. He was a secretary-bird, and had caught 
sight of a snake. We passed " Brant Vley " 
{burnt or hot spring), where sulphur- water 
bubbles up in a basin some thirty feet across 
and ten or twelve deep. The water is clear as 
crystal, and is hot enough just not to boil an 
egg, I was told. At last, one reaches the little 
gap between the brown hills which one has 
seen for four hours, and drives through it into 
a wide, wide flat, with still craggier and higher 
mountains all round, and Worcester in front at 



304 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

the foot of a towering cliff. The town is not 
so pretty, to my taste, as the little villages. The 
streets are too wide, and the market-place too 
large, which always looks dreary, but the houses 
and gardens individually are charming. Our 
inn is a very nice handsome old Dutch house ; 
but we have got back to " civilization/' and the 
horrid attempts at "style" which belong to 
Capetown. The landlord and lady are too gen- 
teel to appear at all, and the Hottentots, who 
are disguised, according to their sexes, in pantry 
jacket and flounced petticoat, don't understand 
a word of English or real Dutch. At Gnaden- 
thai they understood Dutch, and spoke it toler- 
ably ; but here, as in most places, it is three-parts 
Hottentot ; and then they affect to understand 
English, and bring everything wrong, and are 
sulky : but the rooms are comfortable. The 
change of climate is complete — the summer 
was over at Caledon, and here we are into it 
again — the most delicious air one can conceive ; 
it must have been a perfect oven six weeks ago. 
The birds are singing away merrily still ; the 
approach of autumn does not silence them here. 
The canaries have a very pretty song, like our 
linnet, only sweeter ; the rest are very inferior 
to ours. The sugar-bird is delicious when 
close by, but his pipe is too soft to be heard at 
any distance. 



CAPETOWN. 305 

To those who think voyages and travels tire- 
some, my delight in the new birds and beasts 
and people must seem very stupid. I can't 
help it if it does, and am not ashamed to con- 
fess that I feel the old sort of enchanted wonder 
with which I used to read Cook's Voyages, and 
the like, as a child. It is very coarse and unin- 
tellectual of me ; but I would rather see this 
now, at my age, than Italy ; the fresh, new, 
beautiful nature is a second youth — or childhood 
— si vous voulez. To-morrow we shall cross 
the highest pass I have yet crossed, and sleep 
at Paarl — then Stellenbosch, then Capetown. 
For anyone out of health, and in pocket, I 
should certainly prescribe the purchase of a 
waggon and team of six horses, and a long, 
slow progress in South Africa. One cannot 
walk in the mid-day sun, but driving with a 
very light roof over one's head is quite delicious. 
When I looked back upon my dreary, lonely 
prison at Ventnor, I wondered I had survived 
it at all. 

Capetown, March 7th. 
After writing last, we drove out, on Sunday 
afternoon, to a deep alpine valley, to see a new 
bridge — a great marvel apparently. The old 
Spanish Joe Miller about selling the bridge to 
buy water occurred to me, and made Sabaal 

x 



306 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



laugh immensely. The Dutch farmers were 
tearing home from Kerk, in their carts — well- 
dressed, prosperous-looking folks, with capital 
horses. Such lovely farms, snugly nestled in 
orange and pomegranate groves ! It is of no 
use to describe this scenery ; it is always moun- 
tains, and always beautiful opal mountains ; 
quite without the gloom of European mountain 
scenery. The atmosphere must make the 
charm. I hear that an English traveller went 
the same journey and found all barren from 
Dan to Beersheba. I'm sorry for him. 

In the morning of Sunday, early, I walked . 
along the road with Sabaal, and saw a picture 
I shall never forget. A little Malabar girl had 
just been bathing in the Sloot, and had put her 
scanty shift on her lovely little wet brown body ; 
she stood in the water with the drops glittering 
on her brown skin and black satin hair, the per- 
fection of youthful loveliness — a naiad of ten 
years old. When the shape and features are 
perfect, as hers were, the coffee-brown shows it 
better than our colour, on account of its perfect 
evenness — like the dead white of marble. I 
shall never forget her as she stood playing with 
the leaves of the gum-tree which hung over 
her, and gazing with her glorious eyes so 
placidly. 

On Monday morning, I walked off early to 



CAPETOWN. 307 

the old Drosdy (Landdrost's house), found an 
old gentleman, who turned out to be the owner, 
and who asked me my name and all the rest of 
the Dutch " litanei " of questions, and showed 
me the pretty old Dutch garden and the house 
— a very handsome one. I walked back to 
breakfast, and thought Worcester the prettiest 
place I had ever seen. We then started for 
Paarl, and drove through " Bain's Kloof," a 
splendid mountain-pass, four hours long, con- 
stant driving. It was glorious, but more like 
what one had seen in pictures — a deep, narrow 
gorge, almost dark in places, and, to my mind, 
lacking the beauty of the yesterday's drive, 
though it is, perhaps, grander ; but the view 
which bursts on one at the top, and the descent, 
winding down the open mountain-side, is too 
fine to describe. Table Mountain, like a giant's 
stronghold, seen far distant, with an immense 
plain, half fertile, half white sand ; to the left, 
Wagenmakker's Vley ; and further on, the 
Paarl lying scattered on the slope of a moun- 
tain topped with two domes, just the shape of the 
cup which Lai's (wasn't it ?) presented to the 
temple of Venus, moulded on her breast. The 
horses were tired, so we stopped at Wagon- 
maker's Valley (or Wellington, as the English 
try to get it called), and found ourselves in 
a true Flemish village, and under the roof of 

x 2 



308 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

a jolly Dutch hostess, who gave us divine 
coffee and bread-and-butter, which seemed am- 
brosia after being deprived of those luxuries for 
almost three months. Also new milk in abun- 
dance, besides fruit of all kinds in vast heaps, 
and pomegranates off the tree. I asked her 
to buy me a few to take in the cart, and got 
a 11 muid," the third of a sack, for a shilling, 
with a bill, " U bekomt i muid 28 granaeten, 
dat kostet is." The old lady would walk out 
with me and take me into the shops, to show 
the "vrow uit Engelland ,, to her friends. It 
was a lovely place, intensely hot, all glowing 
with sunshine. Then the sun went down, and 
the high mountains behind us were precisely 
the colour of a Venice ruby glass — really, truly, 
and literally ; — not purple, not crimson, but 
glowing ruby-red — and the quince-hedges and 
orange-trees below looked intensely green, and 
the houses snow-white. It was a transfigura- 
tion — no less. 

I saw Hottentots again, four of them, from 
some remote corner, so the race is not quite 
extinct. These were youngish, two men and 
two women, quite light yellow, not darker than 
Europeans, and with little tiny black knots of 
wool scattered over their heads at intervals. 
They are hideous in face, but exquisitely 
shaped — very, very small though. One of the 



CAPETOWN. 309 

men was drunk, poor wretch, and looked the 
picture of misery. You can see the fineness 
of their senses by the way in which they dart 
their glances and prick their ears. Everyone 
agrees that, when tamed, they make the best 
of servants — gentle, clever, and honest ; but the 
penny-a-glass wine they can't resist, unless 
when caught and tamed young. They work in 
the fields, or did so as long as any were left ; 
but even here, I was told, it was a wonder to 
see them. 

We went on through the Paarl, a sweet, 
pretty place, reminding one vaguely of Bon- 
church, and still through fine mountains, with 
Scotch firs growing like Italian stone pines, and 
farms, and vineyard upon vineyard. At Stel- 
lenbosch we stopped. I had been told it was 
the prettiest town in the colony, and it is very 
pretty, with oak-trees all along the street, like 
those at Paarl and Wagenmakker's Vley ; but 
I was disappointed. It was less beautiful than 
what I had seen. Besides, the evening was 
dull and cold. The south-easter greeted us 
here, and I could not go out all the afternoon. 
The inn was called " Railway Hotel/' and kept 
by low coarse English people, who gave us 
a filthy dinner, dirty sheets, and an atrocious 
breakfast, and charged 1/. 3^. 6d. for the same 
meals and time as old Vrow Langfeldt had 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



charged \2s. for, and had given civility, clean- 
liness, and abundance of excellent food ; — be- 
sides which, she fed Sabaal gratis, and these 
people fleeced him as they did me. So, next 
morning, we set off, less pleasantly disposed, 
for Capetown, over the flat, which is dreary 
enough, and had a horrid south-easter. We 
started early, and got in before the wind be- 
came a hurricane, which it did later. We were 

warmly welcomed by Mrs. R — ; and here 

I am in my old room, looking over the beautiful 
bay, quite at home again. It blew all yesterday, 
and having rather a sore-throat I stayed in bed, 
and to-day is all bright and beautiful. But 
Capetown looks murky after Caledon and Wor- 
cester ; there is, to my eyes, quite a haze over 
the mountains, and they look far off and in- 
distinct. All is comparative in this world, even 
African skies. At Caledon, the most distant 
mountains, as far as your eye can reach, look 
as clear in every detail as the map on your 
table — an appearance utterly new to European 
eyes. 

I gave Sabaal il. for his eight days' service 
as driver, as a Drinkgelt, and the worthy fellow 
was in ecstasies of gratitude. Next morning 
early, he appeared with a present of bananas, 
and his little girl dressed from head to foot in 
bran-new clothes, bought out of my money, 



CAPETOWN. 311 

with her wool screwed up extremely tight in 
little knots on her black little head (evidently 
her mother is the blackest of Caffres or Mo- 
zambiques). The child looked like a Caffre, 
and her father considers her quite a pearl. 
I had her in, and admired the little thing loud 
enough for him to hear outside, as I lay in bed. 
You see, I too was to have my share in the 
pleasure of the new clothes. This readiness to 
believe that one will sympathize with them, is 
very pleasing in the Malays. 

March 15. 

I went to see my old Malay friends and to 
buy a water-melon. They were in all the 
misery of Ramadan. Betsy and pretty Nis- 
sirah very thin and miserable, and the pious old 
Abdool sitting on a little barrel waiting for 
"gun-fire" — i.e. sunset, to fall to on the supper 
which old Betsy was setting out. He was 
silent, and the corners of his mouth were drawn 
down just like 's at an evening party. 

I shall go to-morrow to bid the T s good- 
bye, at Wynberg. I was to have spent a few 
days there, but Wynberg is cold at night and 
dampish, so I declined that. She is a nice 
woman — Irish, and so innocent and frank and 
well-bred. She has been at Cold Bokke Veld, 
and shocked her puritanical host by admiring 



312 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

the naked Caffres who worked on his farm. 
He wanted them to wear clothes. 

We have been amused by the airs of a naval 
captain and his wife, who are just come here. 
They complained that the merchant-service 
officers spoke familiarly to their children on 
board. Quel audacel When I think of the 
excellent, modest, manly young fellows who 
talked very familiarly and pleasantly to me on 
board the St. Lawrence, I long to reprimand 
these foolish people. 

Friday, 21st. — I am just come from prayer, 
at the Mosque in Chiappini Street, on the out- 
skirts of the town. A most striking sight. A 
large room, like a county ball-room, with glass 
chandeliers, carpeted with common carpet, all 
but a space at the entrance, railed off for shoes ; 
the Caaba and pulpit at one end ; over the niche, 
a crescent painted ; and over the entrance door 
a crescent, an Arabic inscription, and the royal 
arms of England ! A fat jolly Mollah looked 
amazed as I ascended the steps ; but when 
I touched my forehead and said " Salam 
Aleykum," he laughed and said, " Salam, 
Salam, come in, come in." The faithful 
poured in, all neatly dressed in their loose drab 
trousers, blue jackets, and red handkerchiefs on 
their heads ; they left their wooden clogs in 
company with my shoes, and proceeded, as it 



CAPETOWN. 313 

appeared, to strip. Off went jackets, waist- 
coats, and trousers, with the dexterity of a pan- 
tomime transformation ; the red handkerchief 
was replaced by a whke skull-cap, and a long 
large white shirt and full white drawers flowed 
around them. How it had all been stuffed into 
the trim jacket and trousers, one could not 
conceive. Gay sashes and scarves were pulled 
out of a little bundle in a clean silk hand- 
kerchief, and a towel served as prayer-carpet. 
In a moment the whole scene was as oriental 
as if the Hansom cab I had come in existed no 
more. Women suckled their children, and boys 
played among the clogs and shoes all the time, 
and I sat on the iloor in a remote corner. The 
chanting was very fine, and the whole ceremony 
very decorous and solemn. It lasted an hour; 
and then the little heaps of garments were put 
on, and the congregation dispersed, each man 
first laying a penny on a very curious little old 
Dutch-looking, heavy, iron-bound chest, which 
stood in the middle of the room. 

I have just heard that the post closes to-night 
and must say farewell — a rivederci. 

Capetown, March 20th. 
Dr. Shea says he fears I must not winter 
in England yet, but that I am greatly im- 
proved — as, indeed, I could tell him. He 



3 H LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

is another of the kind "sea doctors" I have 
met with ; he came all the way from Simon's 
Bay to see me, and then said, " What non- 
sense is that ? " when ' I offered him a fee. 
This is a very nice place up in the " gardens," 
quite out of the town and very comfortable. 

But I regret Caledon. A will show you 

my account of my beautiful journey back. 
Worcester is a fairy-land ; and then to catch 
tortoises walking about, and to see u baviaans," 
and snakes and secretary birds eating them ! 
and then people have the impudence to think 
I must have been "very dull!" Sie merkens 
fiickt that it is they who are dull. 

Dear Dr. Hawtrey ! he must have died just 
as I was packing up the first Caffre Testament 
for him ! I felt his death very much, in con- 
nexion with my father ; their regard for each 
other was an honour to both. I have the 

letter he wrote me on J s marriage, and 

a charming one it is. 

I took Mrs. A a drive in a Hansom 

cab to-day out to Wynberg, to see my friends 

Captain and Mrs. T , who have a cottage 

under Table Mountain in a spot like the best 
of St. George's Hill. Very dull too; but as 
she is really a lady, it suits her, and Capetown 
does not. I was to have stayed with them, but 
Wynberg is cold at night. Poor B 's wife 



CAPETOWN. 315 

is very ill and won't leave Capetown for a day. 
The people here are wunderlich for, that. 
A lady born here, and with 7,000/. a year, 
has never been further than Stellenbosch. 
about twenty miles. I am asked how I lived 
and what I ate during my little excursion, as 
if I had been to Lake Ngami. If only I had 
known how easy it all is, I would have gone 
by sea to East London and seen the Knysna 
and George district, and the primaeval African 
forest, the yellow wood, and other giant trees. 
However, " For what I have received/' &c. &c. 
No one can conceive what it is, after two years 
of prison and utter languor, to stand on the 
top of a mountain pass, and enjoy physical 
existence for a few hours at a time. I felt as 
if it was quite selfish to enjoy anything so 
much when you were all so anxious about me 
at home ; but as that is the best symptom of 
all, I do not repent. 

S has been an excellent travelling ser- 
vant, and really a better companion than many 
more educated people ; for she is always 
amused and curious, and is friendly with the 
coloured people. She is quite recovered. It 
is a wonderful climate — sans que cela paraisse. 
It feels chilly and it blows horridly, and does 
not seem genial, but it gives new life. 

To-morrow I am going with old Abdool 



316 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

Jemaalee to prayers at the Mosque, and shall 
see a school kept by a Malay priest. It is 
now Ramadan, and my Muslim friends are 
very thin and look glum. Choslullah sent 
a message to ask, " Might he see the Missis 
once more ? He should pray all the time she 
was on the sea." Some pious Christians here 
would expect such horrors to sink the ship. 
I can't think why Mussulmans are always 
gentlemen ; the Malay coolies have a grave 
courtesy which contrasts most strikingly with 
both European vulgarity and negro jollity. 
It is very curious, for they only speak Dutch, 
and know nothing of oriental manners. I fear 
I shall not see the Walkers again. Simon's 
Bay is too far to go and come in a day, as one 
cannot go out before ten or eleven, and must 
be in by five or half-past. Those hours are 
gloriously bright and hot, but morning and 
night are cold. 

I am so happy in the thought of sailing 
now so very soon and seeing you all again, 
that I can settle to nothing for five minutes. 
I now feel how anxious and uneasy I have 
been, and how I shall rejoice to get home. 

I shall leave a letter for A , to go in April, 

and tell him and you what ship I am in. I 
shall choose the slowest, so as not to reach 
England and face the Channel before June, 



CAPETOWN. 317 

if possible. So don't be alarmed if I do not 
arrive till late in June. Till then good-bye, 
and God bless you, dearest mother — Auffrohes 
Wiedersehn. 

Capetown, Sunday, March 23d. 
It has been a real hot day, and threatened 
an earthquake and a thunderstorm ; but nothing 
has come of it beyond sheet lightning to-night, 
which is splendid over the bay, and looks as 
if repeated in a grand bush-fire on the hills 
opposite. The sunset was glorious. That 
rarest of insects, the praying mantis, has just 
dropped upon my paper. I am thankful that, 
not being an entomologist, I am dispensed from 
the sacred duty of impaling the lovely green 
creature who sits there, looking quite wise and 
human. Fussy little brown beetles, as big as 
two lady-birds, keep flying into my eyes, and 
the mosquitoes are rejoicing loudly in the pro- 
spect of a feast. You will understand by this 
that both windows are wide open into the great 
verandah, — very unusual in this land of cold 
nights. 

April /\.tk. — I have been trying in vain to 
get a passage home. The Camperdown has 
not come. In short, I am waiting for a chance 
vessel, and shall pack up now and be ready to 
go on board at a day's notice. 



3i8 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

I went on the last evening of Ramaddn to 
the Mosque, having heard there was a grand 
" function ; " but there were only little boys 
lying about on the floor, some on their stomachs, 
some on their backs, higgledy-piggledy (if it 
be not profane to apply the phrase to young 
Islam), all shouting their prayers a tue ttte. 
Priests, men, women, and English crowded in 
and out in the exterior division. The English 
behaved a V Anglaise — pushed each other, 
laughed, sneered, and made a disgusting dis- 
play of themselves. I asked a stately priest, 
in a red turban, to explain the affair to me, and 
in a few minutes found myself supplied by one 
Mollah with a chair, and by another with a 
cup of tea — was, in short, in the midst of a 
Malay soiree. They spoke English very little, 
but made up for it by their usual good breeding 
and intelligence. On Monday, I am going to 
see the school which the priest keeps at his 
house, and to " honour his house by my pre- 
sence/' The delight they show at any friendly 
interest taken in them is wonderful. Of course I 
am supposed to be poisoned. A clergyman's 
widow here gravely asserts that her husband went 
mad three years after drinking a cup of coffee 
handed to him by a Malay ! — and in conse- 
quence of drinking it ! It is exactly like the 
mediaeval feeling about the Jews. I saw that 



CAPETOWN. 319 

it was quite a demonstration that I drank up 
the tea unhesitatingly. Considering that the 
Malays drank it themselves, my courage de- 
serves less admiration. But it was a quaint 
sensation to sit in a Mosque, behaving as if 
at an evening party, in a little circle of poor 
Muslim priests. 

I am going to have a photograph of my cart 
done. I was to have gone to the place to-day, 
but when Choslullah (whom I sent for to 
complete the picture) found out what I wanted, 
he implored me to put it off* till Monday, that 
he might be better dressed, and was so unhappy 
at the notion of being immortalised in an old 
jacket, that I agreed to the delay. Such a 
handsome fellow may be allowed a little vanity. 

The colony is torn with dissensions as to 
Sunday trains. Some of the Dutch clergy 
are even more absurd than our own on that 
point. A certain Van de Lingen, at Stellen- 
bosch, calls Europe " one vast Sodom," and so 
forth. There is altogether a nice kettle of 
religious hatred brewing here. The English 
Bishop of Capetown appoints all the English 
clergy, and is absolute monarch of all he sur- 
veys ; and he and his clergy are carrying mat- 
ters with a high hand. The Bishop's chaplain 

told Mrs. J that she could not hope for 

salvation in the Dutch Church, since her clergy 



320 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

were not ordained by any bishop, and therefore 
they could only administer the sacrament " tcnto 
damnation" All the physicians in a body, 
English as well as Dutch, have withdrawn from 
the dispensary, because it was used as a means 
of pressure to draw the coloured people from 
the Dutch to the English Church. 

This High-Church tyranny cannot go on 
long. Catholics there are few, but their bishop 
plays the same game ; and it is a losing one. 
The Irish maid at the Caledon inn was driven 
by her bishop to be married at the Lutheran 
church, just as a young Englishman I know 
(though a fervent Puseyite) was driven to be 
married at the Scotch kirk. The colonial 
bishops are despots in their own churches, and 
there is no escape from their tyranny but by 
dissent. The Admiral and his family have 
been anathematized for going to a fancy bazaar 
given by the Wesleyans for their chapel. 

April %th. — Yesterday, I failed about my cart 
photograph. First, the owner had sent away 
the cart, and when Choslullah came dressed in 
all his best clothes, with a lovely blue hand- 
kerchief setting off his beautiful orange-tawny 
face, he had to rush off to try to borrow another 
cart. As ill luck would have it, he met a 
" serious young man/' with no front teeth, and 



CAPETOWN. 321 

a hideous wen on his eyebrow, who informed 
the priest of Choslullah's impious purpose, and 
came with him to see that he did not sit for his 
portrait. I believe it was half envy ; for my 
handsome driver was as pleased, and then as 
disappointed, as a young lady about her first 
ball, and obviously had no religious scruples of 
his own on the subject. The weather is very 
delightful now — hot but beautiful ; and the 
south-easters, though violent, are short, and not 
cold. As in all other countries, autumn is the 
best time of year. 

April i^th. — Your letters arrived yesterday, 
to my great delight. I have been worrying 
about a ship, and was very near sailing to-day 
by the Queen of the South, at twenty-four hours' 
notice, but I have resolved to wait for the 
Camperdown. The Queen of the South is a 
steamer, — which is odious, for they pitch the 
coal all over the lower deck, so that you breathe 
coal-dust for the first ten days ; then she was 
crammed — only one cabin vacant, and that 
small, and on the lower deck — and fifty-tw r o 
children on board. Moreover, she will probably 
get to England too soon, so I resign myself to 
wait. The Camperdown has only upper-deck 
cabins, and I shall have fresh air. I am not as 
well as I was at Caledon, so I am all the more 

Y 



322 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



anxious to have a voyage likely to do me good 
instead of harm. 

I got my cart and Choslullah photographed 
after all. Choslullah came next day (having 
got rid of his pious friend), quite resolved that 
" the Missis " should take his portrait, so I 
will send or bring a few copies of my beloved 
cart. After the photograph was done, we 
drove round the Kloof, between Table and 
Lion Mountain. The road is cut on the side 
of Lion Mountain, and overhangs the sea at a 
great height. Camp Bay, which lies on the 
further side of the " Lion's Head," is most 
lovely ; never was sea so deeply blue, rocks so 
warmly brown, or sand and foam so glittering 
white ; and down at the mountain-foot the 
bright green of the orange and pomegranate 
trees throws it all out in greater relief. But 
the atmosphere here won't do after that of the 
41 Ruggings," as the Caledon line of country is 
called. I shall never lose the impression of the 
view I had when Dr. Morkel drove me out on 
a hill-side, where the view seemed endless and 
without a vestige of life ; and yet in every 
valley there were farms ; but it looked a vast, 
utter solitude, and without the least haze. 
You don't know what that utter clearness 
means — the distinctness is quite awful. Here 
it is always slightly hazy ; very pretty and 



CAPETOWN. 323 

warm, but it takes off from the grandeur. It 
is the difference between a pretty Pompadour 
beauty and a Greek statue. Those pale opal 
mountains, as distinct in every detail as the 
map on your table, and so cheerful and serene ; 
no melodramatic effects of clouds and gloom. 
I suppose it is not really so beautiful as it 
seemed to me, for other people say it is bare 
and desolate, and certainly it is ; but to me it 
seemed anything but dreary. 

I am persuaded that Capetown is not healthy; 
indeed, the town can't be, from its stench and 
dirt ; but I believe the whole seashore is more 
or less bad, compared to the upper plateaux, 
of which I know only the first. I should have 
gone back to Paarl, only that ships come and 
go within twenty-four hours, so one has the 
pleasure of living in constant expectation, with 
packed trunks, wondering when one shall get 

away. A clever Mr. M , who has lived all 

over India, and is going back to Singapore, with 
his wife and child, are now in the house ; and 
some very pleasant Jews, bound for British 
Caffraria — one of them has a lovely little wife 
and three children. She is very full of Prince 
Albert's death, and says there was not a dry 
eye in the synagogues in London, which were 
all hung with black on the day of his funeral, and 
prayer went on the whole day. " The people 

Y 2 



324 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

mourned for him as much as for Hezekiah ; 
and, indeed, he deserved it a great deal better," 
was her rather unorthodox conclusion. These 
colonial Jews are a new " Erscheinung " to me. 
They have the features of their race, but many 

of their peculiarities are gone. Mr. L , who 

is very handsome and gentlemanly, eats ham 
and patronises a good breed of pigs on the 
" model farm " on which he spends his money. 
He is (he says) a thorough Jew in faith, and 
evidently in charitable works ; but he wants 
to say his prayers in English, and not to M dress 
himself up " in a veil and phylacteries for the 
purpose ; and he and his wife talk of England 
as " home," and care as much for Jerusalem 
as their neighbours. They have not forgotten 
the old persecutions, and are civil to the coloured 
people, and speak of them in quite a different 
tone from other English colonists. Moreover, 
they are far better mannered, and more 
" human" in the German sense of the word, 
in all respects ; — in short, less " colonial." 

I have bought some Cape " confeyt ; " apri- 
cots, salted and then sugared, called " mebos " 
— delicious ! Also pickled peaches, " chistnee," 
and quince jelly. I have a notion of some 
Cherupiga wane for ourselves. I will inquire 
the cost of bottling, packing, &c. ! it is about 
one shilling and fourpence a bottle here, sweet 



CAPETOWN. 325 

red wine, unlike any other I ever drank, and 
I think very good. It is very tempting to 
bring a few things so unknown in England. 
I have a glorious "Veld combas 93 for you, a 
blanket of nine Damara sheepskins, sewn by 
the Damaras, and dressed so that moths and 
fleas won't stay near it It will make a 
grand railway rug and "outside car" covering. 
The hunters use them for sleeping out of doors. 
I have bought three, and a springbok caross 
for somebody. 

April \*]th. — The winter has set in to-day. 
It rains steadily, at the rate of the heaviest bit 
of the heaviest shower in England, and is as 
cold as a bad day early in September. One 
can just sit without a fire. Presently, all will 
be green and gay ; for winter is here the season 
of flowers, and the heaths will cover the country 
with a vast Turkey carpet. Already the green 
is appearing where all was brown yesterday. 
To-day is Good Friday ; and if Christmas 
seemed odd at Midsummer, Easter in autumn 
seems positively unnatural. Our Jewish party 
made their exodus to-day, by the little coasting 
steamer, to Algoa Bay. I rather condoled 
with the pretty little woman about her long- 
rough journey, with three babies ; but she 
laughed, and said they had had time to get 



326 



LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



used to it ever since the days of Moses. All 
she grieved over was not being able to keep 
Passover, and she described their domestic 
ceremonies quite poetically. We heard from 
our former housemaid, Annie, the other day, 
announcing her marriage and her sister s. She 

wrote such a pretty, merry letter to S , 

saying " the more she tried not to like him, 
the better she loved him, and had to say, ' Aha, 
Annie, you're caught at last/ " A year and a 
half is a long time to remain single in this 
country. 

Monday, April 21st, Easter Monday .—The 
mail goes out in an hour, so I will just add, 
good-bye. The winter is now fairly set in, and 

I long" to be off. I fear I shall have a des- 

<_> 

perately cold week or so at first sailing, till we 
catch the south-east trades. This weather is 
beautiful in itself, but I feel it from the sudden- 
ness of the change. We passed in one night 
from hot summer to winter, which is like fine 
English April, or October, only brighter than 
anything in Europe. There is, properly, no 
autumn or spring here ; only hot, dry, brown 
summer, with its cold wind at times, and fresh 
green winter, all fragrance and flowers, and 

much less wind. Mr. M , of whom I told 

you, has been in every corner of the far East — 



CAPETOWN. 327 

Java, Sumatra, everywhere — and is extremely 
amusing. He has brought his wife here for 
her health, and is as glad to talk as I am. The 
conversation of an educated, clever person is 
quite a new and delightful sensation to me now. 
He appears to have held high posts under the 
East India Company, is learned in Oriental 
languages, and was last resident at Singapore. 
He says that no doubt Java is Paradise, it is so 
lovely, and such a climate ; but he does not look 
as if it had agreed with him. I feel quite heart- 
sick at seeing these letters go off before me, in- 
stead of leaving them behind, as I had hoped. 

Well, I must say good-bye — or rather, " auf 
Wiedersehn" — and God knows how glad I shall 
be when that day comes ! 

Capetown, April igt/i. 
Here I am, waiting for a ship ; the steamer 
was too horrid : and I look so much to the good 
to be gained by the voyage that I did not like 
to throw away the chance of two months at sea 
at this favourable time of year, and under 
favourable circumstances ; so I made up my 
mind to see you all a month later. The sea 
just off the Cape is very, very cold ; less so 
now than in spring, I dare say. The weather 
to-day is just like very warm April at home — 
showery, sunshiny, and fragrant ; most lovely. 



328 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

It is so odd to see an autumn without dead 
leaves : only the oaks lose theirs, the old ones 
drop without turning brown, and the trees bud 
again at once. The rest put on a darker green 
dress for winter, and now the flowers will begin. 
I have got a picture for you of my " cart and 
four/' with sedate Choslullah and dear little 
Mohammed. The former wants to go with me, 
" anywhere/' as he placidly said, " to be the 
missis's servant." What a sensation his thatch- 
like hat and handsome orange-tawny face would 
make at Esher ! Such a stalwart henchman 
would be very creditable. I shall grieve to 
think I shall never see my Malay friends again ; 
they are the only people here who are really 
interesting. I think they must be like the 
Turks in manner, as they have all the eastern 
gentlemanly " Gelassenheit " (ease) and polite- 
ness, and no eastern " Geschmeidigkeit" (obse- 
quiousness), and no idea of Baksheesh; withal 
frugal, industrious, and moneymaking, to an 
astonishing degree. The priest is a bit of a 
proselytiser, and amused me much with an 
account of how he had converted English girls 
from their evil courses and made them good 
Mussulwomen. I never heard a naif and sin- 
cere account of conversions from Christianity 
before, and I must own it was much milder 
than the Exeter Hall style. 



CAPETOWN. 329 

I have heard a great many expressions of 
sorrow for the Queen from the Malays, and 
always with the " hope the people will take 
much care of her, now she is alone." Of course 
Prince Albert was only the Queen's husband to 
them, and all their feeling is about her. It is 
very difficult to see anything of them, for they 
want nothing of you, and expect nothing but 
dislike and contempt. It would take a long 
time to make many friends, as they are natur- 
ally distrustful. I found that eating or drinking 
anything, if they offer it, made most way, as 
they know they are accused of poisoning all 
Christians indiscriminately. Of course there- 
fore they are shy of offering things. I drank 
tea in the Mosque at the end of Ramadan, and 
was surrounded by delighted faces as I sipped. 
The little boy who waits in this house here had 
followed us, and was horrified : he is still wait- 
ing to see the poison work. 

No one can conceive what has become of all 
the ships that usually touch here about this 
time. I was promised my choice of Green's, 
and now only the heavy old Camperdown is 
expected with rice from Moulmein. A lady 
now here, who has been Heaven only knows 
where not, praises Alexandria above all other 
places, after Suez. Her lungs are bad, and 
she swears by Suez, which she says is the 



330 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

dreariest and healthiest (for lungs) place in the 
world. You can't think how soon one learns 
to " annihilate space/' if not time, in one's 
thoughts, by daily reading advertisements for 
every port in India, America, Australia, &c. 
&c, and conversing with people who have just 
come from the " ends of the earth." Mean- 
while, I fear I shall have to fly from next 

winter again, and certainly will go with J 

to Egypt, which seems to me like next door. 

I have run on, and not thanked you for your 
letter and M. Mignet's beautiful eloge of Mr. 
Hallam, which pleased me greatly. I wish 
Englishmen could learn to speak with the 
same good taste and mesure. 

Mr. Wodehouse, who has been very civil to 
me, kindly tried to get me a passage home in a 
French frigate lying here, but in vain. I am 
now sorry I let the Jack tars here persuade me 
not to go in the little barque; but they talked so 
much of the heat and damp of such tiny cabins 
in an iron vessel, that I gave her up, though 
I liked the idea of a good tossing in such a tiny 
cockboat. I will leave a letter for the May 
mail, unless I sail within a week of to-morrow, 
or go by the Jason, which would be home far 
sooner than the mail. I only hope you and 

A won't be uneasy ; the worst that can 

happen is delay, and the long voyage will be 



CAPETOWN. 33! 

all gain to health, which would not be the 
case in a steamer. 

All I hear of R makes me wild to see 

her again. The little darkies are the only 
pleasing children here, and a fat black toddling 
thing is " allerliebst." I know a boy of four, 
literally jet black, whom I long to steal as he 
follows his mother up to the mountain to wash. 
Little Malays are lovely, but too well-behaved 
and quiet. I tried to get a real " tottie" or 
" Hotentotje, ,, but the people were too drunk to 
remember where they had left their child. 
Cest assez dire that I should have had no 
scruple in buying it for a bottle of " smoke " 
(the spirit made from grape husks). They are 
clever and affectionate when they have a 
chance, poor things — and so strange to 
look at. 

By the by, a Bonn man, Dr. Bleek, called 
here with " Griiss " from our old friends, 
Professor Mendelssohn and his wife. He is 
devoting himself to Hottentot and aboriginal 
literature ! — and has actually mastered the 
Cafifre click, which I vainly practised under 
Kleenboy's tuition. He wanted to teach me 
to say 4< Tkorkha," which means " you lie," or, 
f you have missed " (in shooting or throwing a 
stone, &c.) — a curious combination of meanings. 
He taught me to throw stones or a stick at 



332 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

him, which he always avoided, however close 
they fell, and cried " Tkorkha !" The Caffres 
ask for a present, " tkzeelah Tabak," " a gift 
for tobacco. " 

The Farnese Hercules is a living truth. I 
saw him in the street two days ago, and he was 
a Caffre coolie. The proportions of the head 
and throat were more wonderful in flesh, or 
muscle rather, than in marble. I know a Caffre 
girl of thirteen, who is a noble model of strength 
and beauty ; such an arm — larger than any 
white woman's — with such a dimple in her 
elbow, and a wrist and hand which no glove is 
small enough to fit — and a noble countenance 
too. She is " apprenticed/' a name for tem- 
porary slavery, and is highly spoken of as a 
servant, as the Caffres always are. They are 
a majestic race, but with just the stupid conceit 
of a certain sort of Englishmen ; the women 
and girls seem charming. 

Easter Sunday. — The weather continues 
beautifully clear and bright, like the finest 
European spring. It seems so strange for the 
floral season to be the winter. But as the 
wind blows the air is quite cold to-day ; never- 
theless, I feel much better the last two days. 
The brewing of the rain made the air very 
oppressive and heavy for three weeks, but 
now it is as light as possible. 



CAPETOWN. 333 

I must say good-bye, as the mail closes to- 
morrow morning. Easter in autumn is pre- 
posterous, only the autumn looks like spring. 
The consumptive young girl whom I packed 
off to the Cape, and her sister, are about to 
be married — of course. Annie has had a 
touch of Algoa Bay fever, a mild kind of 
ague, but no sign of chest disease, or even 
delicacy. My " hurrying her off," which some 
people thought so cruel, has saved her. Who- 
ever comes soon enough recovers, but for people 
far gone it is too bracing. 

Capetown, Saturday, May id. 

After five weeks of waiting and worry, I 
have at last sent my goods on board the ship 
Camperdown, now discharging her cargo, and 
about to take a small party of passengers from 
the Cape. I offered to take a cabin in a Swedish 
ship, bound for Falmouth ; but the captain 
could not decide whether he would take a 
passenger ; and while he hesitated the old 
Camperdozvn came in. I have the best cabin 
after the stern cabins, which are occupied by 
the captain and his wife and the Attorney- 
General of Capetown, who is much liked. The 
other passengers are quiet people, and few of 
them, and the captain has a high character ; so 
I may hope for a comfortable, though slow 



334 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

passage. I will let you know the day I sail, 
and leave this letter to go by post. I may be 
looked for three weeks or so after this letter. 
I am crazy to get home now ; after the period 
was over for which I had made up my mind, 
home-sickness began. 

Mrs. R has offered me a darling tiny 

monkey, which loves me ; but I fear A 

would send me away again if I returned with 
her in my pocket. Nissirah, old AbdooFs 
pretty granddaughter, brought me a pair of 
Malay shoes or clogs as a parting gift, to-day. 

Mr. M , the resident at Singapore, tells me 

that his secretary's wife, a Malay lady, has 
made an excellent translation of the " Arabian 
Nights," from Arabic into Malay. Her husband 

is an Indian Mussulman, who, Mr. M said, 

was one of the ablest men he ever knew. 
Curious ! 

I sat yesterday for an hour, in the stall of a 
poor German basketmaker who had been long 
in Caffreland. His wife, a Berlinerin, was very 
intelligent, and her account of her life here 
most entertaining, as showing the different 
Ansicht natural to Germans. " I had never," 
she said, 11 been out of the city of Berlin, and 
knew not king" (Compare with London Cock- 
ney, or genuine Parisian.) Thence her fear, on 
landing at Algoa Bay and seeing swarms of 



CAPETOWN. 335 

naked black men, that she had come to a 
country where no clothes were to be had ; and 
what should she do when hers were worn out ? 
They had a grant of land at Fort Peddie, and 
she dug while her husband made baskets of 
cane, and carried them hundreds of miles for 
sale ; sleeping and eating in Caffre huts. u Yes, 
they are good, honest people, and very well- 
bred (anstandig), though they go as naked as 
God made them. The girls are pretty and 
very delicate (fezn), and they think no harm of 
it, the dear innocents." If their cattle strayed, 
it was always brought back ; and they received 
every sort of kindness. " Yes, madam, it is 
shocking how people here treat the blacks. 
They call quite an old man i Boy/ and speak so 
scornfully, and yet the blacks have very nice 
manners, I assure you," When I looked at 
the poor little wizened, pale, sickly Berliner, 
and fancied him a guest in a Caffre hut, it 
seemed an odd picture. But he spoke as coolly 
of his long, lonely journeys as possible, and 
seemed to think black friends quite as good as 
w T hite ones. The use of the words anstandig 
and fein by a woman who spoke very good 
German were characteristic. She could recog- 
nise an Anstandigkeit not of Berlin. I need 
not say that the Germans are generally liked 
by the coloured people. Choslullah was 



356 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

astonished and pleased at my talking German ; 
he evidently had a preference for Germans, 
and put up, wherever he could, at German 
inns and " publics.' 3 

I went on to bid Mrs. Wodehouse good-bye. 
We talked of our dear old Cornish friends. 
The Governor and Mrs. Wodehouse have been 
very kind to me. I dined there twice ; last 
time, with all the dear good Walkers. I 
missed seeing the opening of the colonial par- 
liament by a mistake about a ticket, which I 
am sorrv for. 

If I could have dreamed of waiting here so 
long, I would have run up to Algoa Bay or 
East London, by sea, and had a glimpse of 
Caffreland. Capetown makes me very languid 
— there is something depressing in the air — 
but my cough is much better. I can't walk 
here without feeling knocked-up ; and cab-hire 
is so dear ; and somehow, nothing is worth 
while, when one is waiting from day to day. 
So I have spent more money than when I was 
most amused, in being" bored. 

Mr. J drove me to the Capetown races, 

at Green Point, on Friday. As races, they were 
nichts, but a queer-looking little Cape farmers 
horse, ridden by a Hottentot, beat the English 
crack racer, ridden by a first-rate English jockey, 
in an unaccountable way, twice over. The 



CAPETOWN. 



337 



Malays are passionately fond of horse-racing, 
and the crowd was fully half Malay : there were 
dozens of carts crowded with the bright-eyed 
women, in petticoats of every most brilliant 
colour, white muslin jackets, and gold daggers 
in their great coils of shining black hair. All 
most " anstandig," as they always are. Their 
pleasure is driving about en famille; the men 
have no separate amusements. Every spare 
corner in the cart is filled by the little soft 
round faces of the intelligent-looking quiet 
children, who seem amused and happy, and 
never make a noise or have the fidgets. I 
cannot make out why they are so well behaved. 

It favours A 's theory of the expediency 

of utter spoiling, for one never hears any 
educational process going on. Tiny Mo- 
hammed never spoke but when he was spoken 
to, and was always happy and alert. I observed 
that his uncle spoke to him like a grown man, 
and never ordered him about, or rebuked him 
in the least. 1 like to go up the hill and meet 
the black women coming home in troops from 
the washing place, most of them with a fat 
black baby hanging to their backs asleep, and 
a few rather older trotting alongside, and if 
small, holding on by the mothers gown. She, 
poor soul, carries a bundle on her head which 
few men could lift. If I admire the babies, the 

z 



5)S LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

poor women are enchanted ; — du reste, if you 
look at blacks of any age or sex, they must grin 
or nod, as a good-natured dog must wag his 
tail ; they can't help it. The blacks here 
(except a very few Caffres) are from the 
Mozambique — a short, thick-set, ugly race, with 
wool in huge masses ; but here and there one 
sees a very pretty face among the women. 
The men are beyond belief hideous. There 
are all possible crosses — Dutch, Mozambique, 
Hottentot and English, " alles durcheinander ; " 
then here and there you see that a Chinese or 
a Bengalee a passe par la. The Malays are 
also a mixed race, like the Turks — i.e., they 
marry women of all sorts and colours, provided 
they will embrace Islam. A very nice old 
fellow who waits here occasionally is married 
to an Englishwoman, ci-devant lady's-maid to 
a Governor's wife. I fancy, too, they brought 
some Chinese blood with them from Java. I 
think the population of Capetown must be the 
most motley crew in the world. 

Thursday, May %th. — I sail on Saturday, and 
go on board to-morrow, so as not to be hurried 
off in the early fog. How glad I am to be 
" homeward bound " at last, I cannot say. I am 
very well, and have every prospect of a pleasant 
voyage, We are sure to be well found, as the 



CAPETOWN. 339 

Attorney-General is on board, and is a very 
great man, " inspiring terror and respect " here. 

S says we certainly shall put in at St. 

Helena, so make up your minds not to see me 
till I don't know when. She has been on 
board fitting up the cabin to-day. I have suck 

a rug for J ! a mosaic of skins as fine as 

marquetrie, done by Damara women, and 
really beautiful ; and a sheepskin blanket for 
you, the essence of warmth and softness. I 
shall sleep in mine, and dream of African hill- 
sides wrapt in a " Veld combas." The poor 
little water-tortoises have been killed by drought, 
and I can't get any, but I have the two of my 
own catching for M . 

Good-bye, dearest mother. 

You would have been moved by poor old 
Abdool Jemaalee's solemn benediction when 
I took leave to-day. He accompanied it with 
a gross of oranges and lemons. 

Capetown, Thursday, May Wi. 

At last, after no end of " casus" and " dis- 
crimina rerum," I shall sail on Saturday the 
ioth, per ship Camperdown, for East India 
Docks. 

These weary six weeks have cost no end of 
money and temper. I have been eating my 

z 2 



340 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

heart out at the delay, but it was utterly im- 
possible to go by any of the Indian ships. 
They say there have never been so few ships 
sailing from the Cape as this year, yet crowds 
were expected on account of the Exhibition. 
The Attorney-General goes by our ship, so we 
are sure of good usage ; and I hear he is very 
agreeable. I have the best cabin next to the 

stern cabin, in both senses of next. S has 

come back from the ship, where she has spent 
the day with the carpenter ; and I am to go on 

board to-morrow. Will you ask R to 

cause inquiries to be made among the Mollahs 
of Cairo for a Hadji, by name Abdool Rach- 
man, the son of Abdool Jemaalee, of Capetown, 
and, if possible, to get the inclosed letter sent 
him ? The poor people are in sad anxiety for 
their son, of whom they have not heard for 
four months, and that from an old letter. 
Henry will thus have a part of all the blessings 
which were solemnly invoked on me by poor 
old Abdool, who is getting very infirm, but 
toddled up and cracked his old fingers over my 
head, and invoked the protection of Allah with 
all form ; besides that Betsy sent me twelve 
dozen oranges and lemons. Abdool Rachman 
is about twenty-six, a Malay of Capetown, 
speaks Dutch and English, and is supposed to 
be studying theology at Cairo. The letter is 



CAPETOWN. 34I 

written by the prettiest Malay girl in Cape- 
town. 

I wont enter upon my longings to be home 
again, and to see you all. I must now see to 
my last commissions and things, and send this 
to go by next mail. 

God bless you all, and kiss my darlings, all 
three. 

Friday, May 16th. 
On board the good ship Camper down, 500 miles 
North-West of Table- Bay. 

I embarked this day week, and found a good 
airy cabin, and all very comfortable. Next 
day I got the carpenters services, by being on 
board before all the rest, and relashed and 
cleeted everything, which the u Timmerman," 
of course, had left so as to get adrift the first 
breeze. At two o'clock the Attorney-General, 
Mr. Porter, came on board, escorted by bands 
of music and all the volunteers of Capetown, 
quorum pars maxima fuit; i.e.. Colonel. It 
was quite what the Yankees call an "ovation." 
The ship was all decked with flags, and alto- 
gether there was le diable a quatre. The con- 
sequence was that three signals went adrift in 
the scuffle ; and when a Frenchman signalled 
us, we had to pass for brutaux Anglais, because 
we could not reply. I found means to supply 
the deficiency by the lining of that very ancient 



342 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 

anonymous cloak, which did the red, while a 
bandanna handkerchief of the Captain's fur- 
nished the yellow, to the sailmakers immense 
amusement. On him I bestowed the blue out- 
side of the cloak for a pair of dungaree trousers, 
and in signalling now it is, " up go 2.41, and 
my lady's cloak, which is 7." 

We have had lovely weather, and on Sunday 
such a glorious farewell sight of Table Moun- 
tain and my dear old Hottentot Hills, and of 
Kaap Goed Hoop itself. There was little 
enough wind till yesterday, when a fair 
southerly breeze sprang up, and w T e are rolling 
along merrily ; and the fat old Camper down 
does roll like an honest old " wholesome " tub 
as she is. It is quite a bonne fortune for me to 
have been forced to wait for her, for we have 
had a wonderful spell of fine weather, and 
the ship is the ne plus ultra of comfort. We 
are only twelve first-class upper-deck passengers. 
The captain is a delightful fellow, with a very 
charming young wife. There is only one child 
(a great comfort), a capital cook, and universal 
civility and quietness. It is like a private house 
compared to a railway hotel. Six of the pas- 
sengers are invalids, more or less. Mr. Porter, 
over-worked, going home for health to Ire- 
land ; two men, both with delicate chests, and 
one poor young fellow from Capetown in a 



CAPETOWN. 343 

consumption, who, I fear, will not outlive the 
voyage. The doctor is very civil, and very 
kind to the sick ; but I stick to the cook, and 
am quite greedy over the good fare, after the 
atrocious food of the Cape. Said cook is a 
Portuguese, a distinguished artist, and a great 
bird-fancier. One can wander all over the ship 
here, instead of being a prisoner on the poop ; 
and I even have paid my footing on the fore- 
castle. S clambers up like a lively young- 
ster. You may fancy what the weather is, that 
I have only closed my cabin-window once 
during half of a very damp night ; but no one 
else is so airy. The little goat was as rejoiced 
to be afloat again as her mistress, and is a 
regular pet on board, with the run of the quarter- 
deck. She still gives milk — a perfect Amal- 
thaea. The butcher, who has the care of her, 
cockers her up with dainties, and she begs 
biscuit of the cook. I pay nothing for her fare. 

M 's tortoises are in my cabin, and seem 

very happy. Poor Mr. Porter is very sick, and 
so are the two or three coloured passengers, who 

wont "make an effort " at all. Mrs. H 

(the captain's wife), a young Cape lady, and I, 
are the only "female ladies" of the party. 
The other day we saw a shoal of porpoises 
amounting to many hundreds, if not some 
thousands, who came frisking round the ship. 



344 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE, 

When we first saw them, they looked like a line 
of breakers ; they made such a splash, and they 
jumped right out of the water three feet in 
height, and ten or twelve in distance, glitter- 
ing green and bronze in the sun. Such a 
pretty, merry set of fellows ! 

We shall touch at St. Helena, where I shall 
leave this letter to go by the mail steamer, that 
you may know a few weeks before I arrive how 
comfortably my voyage has begun. 

We see no Cape pigeons ; they only visit 
outward ships — is not that strange ? — but, en re- 
vanche, many more albatrosses than in coming ; 
and we also enjoy the advantage of seeing all 
the homeward-bound ships, as they all pass us 
— a humiliating fact. The Captain laughed 
heartily because I said, " Oh, all right ; I shall 
have the more sea for my money/' — when the 
prospect of a slow voyage was discussed. It is 
very provoking to be so much longer separated 
from you all than I had hoped, but I really be- 
lieve that the bad air and discomfort of the 
other ships would have done me serious in- 
jury ; while here I have every chance of bene- 
fiting to the utmost, and having mild weather 
the whole way, besides the utmost amount of 
comfort possible on board ship. There are 
some cockroaches, indeed, but that is the only 
drawback. The Camperdown is fourteen years 



CAPETOWN. 



old, and was the crack ship to India in her day. 
Now she takes cargo and poop-passengers only, 
and, of course, only gets invalids and people 
who care more for comfort than speed. 

Monday Evening, May 2btk. — Here we are, 
working away still to reach St. Helena. We 
got the tail of a terrific gale and a tremendous 
sea all night in our teeth, which broke up the 
south-east trades for a week. Now it is all 
smooth and fair, with a light breeze again right 
aft; the old trade again. Yesterday a large 
shark paid us a visit, with his suite of three 
pretty little pilot-fish, striped like zebras, who 
swim just over his back. He tried on a 
sailor's cap which fell overboard, tossed it 
away contemptuously, snuffed at the fat pork 
with which a hook was baited, and would none 
of it, and finally ate the fresh sheepskin which 
the butcher had in tow to clean previous to 
putting it away as a perquisite. It is a beautiful 
fish in shape and very graceful in motion. 

To-day a barque from Algoa Bay came close 
to us, and talked with the speaking trumpet. 
She was a pretty, clipper-built, sharp-looking 
craft, but had made a slower run even than 
ourselves. I daresay we shall have her com- 
pany for a long time, as she is bound for St. 
Helena and London. My poor goat died sud- 
denly the other day, to the general grief of the 



3i6 LETTERS FROM THE CAPE. 



ship ; also one of the tortoises. The poor con- 
sumptive lad is wonderfully better. But all the 
passengers were very sick during the rough 

weather, except S and I, who are quite old 

salts. Last week saw a young whale, a baby, 
about thirty feet long, and had a good view of 
him as he played round the ship. We shall 
probably be at St. Helena on Wednesday, but 
I cannot write from thence, as, if there is time, 
I shall get a run on shore while the ship takes 
in water. But this letter will tell you of my 
well-being so far, and in about six weeks after 
the date of it I hope to be with you. I hope 
you won t expect too much in the way of im- 
provement in my health. I look forward, oh, 
so eagerly, to be with you again, and with my 
brats, big and little. God bless you all. 

Yours ever, 

L. D. G. 

Wednesday 2%tk. — Early morning, off St. 
Helena, James Town. 

Such a lovely unreal view of the bold rocks 
and baby-house forts on them! Ship close in. 
Washerwoman come on board, and all hurry. 

An revoir. 



LONDON : R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOF, PR INTER*;. 



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and Incidents in Search of Alpine Plants. By the Rev. HUGH 
M ACM ILL AN, LL.D., F.R.S.E. 

STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. By 

LADY BARKER. Third Edition. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. 



MACMILLAN AND CO LONDON. 



Bedford Street, Strand, London, W.C. 
January 1 875. 



Ma CM ILL AN er- Co:s Catalogue of Works 



Politics, Political and Social Economy, 
Law, etc.; and Works connected with Lan- 
guage. 

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, &c. 

Arnold.— ESSAYS IN CRITICISM. By Matthew Arnold, 
New Edition, with Additions. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 
Contents: — "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time; 19 
"The Literary Influence of Academies;" ii Maurice de Guerin ;" 
' ' Eugenie de Guerin ;" " Heinrich Heine " Pagan and Mediceval ; " 
" Religious Sentiment;" " Joubert "Spinoza and the Bible;" 
1 6 Marcus Aurelius. " 

Atkinson. — AN ART TOUR TO NORTHERN CAPITALS 
OF EUROPE, including Descriptions of the Towns, the Museums, 
and other Art Treasures of Copenhagen, Christiana, Stockholm, 
Abo, Helsingfors, Wiborg, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kief. 
By J. Beavington Atkinson. 8vo. 12s. 
6C Although the main purpose of the book is strictly kept in view, and we 
never forget for long that we are travelling with a student and connoisseur, 
Mr. Atkinson gives variety to his narrative by glimpses of scenery and 
brief allusio7ts to history and manners which are always welcome when 
they occur, and are never wordy or overdone. We have seldom met with 
a book in which what is principal and what is accessory have been kept in 
better proportion to each other." — Saturday Review. 

Baker (Sir Samuel W.) — Works by Sir Samuel Baker, 
Pacha, . M. A. , F.R.G. S. :— 
ISMAILIA : A Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for 
the Suppression of the Slave Trade, organised by Ismail, Khedive 
of Egypt. With Portraits, Maps, and fifty full-page Illustrations 
by Zwecker and Durand. 2 vols. 8vo. 36^. 
"A book which will be read with very great interest." — Times. " Well 

A. 2. r A 



in the Departments of History \ B 
Travels^ Critical and Literary 




10,000.1.75. 



2 MA CMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



Baker (Sir Samuel) {continued)— 

written and full of remarkable adventures." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
" These two splendid volumes add another thrilling chapter to the history 
of African adventure."- — Daily News. "Reads more like a romance 
.... incomparably more entertaining than books of African travel usually 
are" — Morning Post. 

THE ALBERT N'YANZAjGreat Basin of the Nile, and Explora- 
tion of the Nile Sources, fourth Edition. Maps and Illustrations. 
Crown 8vo. 6s. 

(i Charmingly, written;" says the Spectator, "fell, as might be 
expected, of incident, and free from that wearisome reiteration of useless 
facts which is the drawback to almost all books of African travel." 

THE NILE TRIBUTARIES OF ABYSSINIA, and the Sword 
Hunters of the Hamran Arabs. With Maps and Illustrations. 
Fifth Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
The Times says : "It adds much to our information respecting Egyptian 
Abyssinia and the different races that spread over it. It contains, more- 
over, some notable instances of English daring and enterprising skill ; 
it abounds in animated tales of exploits dear to the heart of the British 
sportsman ; and it will attract even the least studious reader, as the author 
tells a story well, and can describe nature with uncommon power." 

Baring-Gould (Rev; S., M.A.) — LEGENDS OF OLD 

TESTAMENT CHARACTERS, from the Talmud and other 
sources. By the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A., Author of 
" Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," " The Origin and Develop- 
ment of Religious Belief," ' ' In Exitu Israel," &c. In Two Vols. 
Crown 8vo. 16s. Vol. I. Adam to Abraham. Vol. II. Mel- 
chizedek to Zechariah. 
e< These volumes contain much that is very strange, and, to the or- 
dinary English reader, very novel" — Daily News. 

Barker (Lady). — STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. 
By Lady Barker, Third Edition. Globe Svo. 3^. 6d. 
" We have never read a more truthful or a pleas ant er 'little book."-— 

ATHEN/EUM. 

Bathgate. — c 

People and P 
Alexander 

Biackhurne.- 



TJAL EXPERIENCES; or, Sketches of 
1 the Province of Otago, New Zealand. By 
3- ate. Crown Svo. Js. 6d. 

GRAPHY OF THE RIGHT HON. 
iBURNE, Late Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 
with his Public and Political Career. By his 
ckburne, Q.C. With Portrait Engraved by 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 



Blanford (W. T.)— GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY OF 
ABYSSINIA. By W. T. Blanford. 8vo. 21s. 

This work contains an account of the Geological and Zoological 
Observations made by the author in Abyssinia, when acconipanying the 
British Army on its march to Magdala and back in 1868, and during a 
short journey in Northern Abyssinia, after the departure of the troops. 
With Coloured Illustrations and Geological Map. 

Brimley.— ESSAYS BY THE LATE GEORGE BRIMLEY, 
M. A. Edited by the Rev. W. G. Clark, M. A. With Portrait. 
Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 

Bryce. — THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. By James Bryce, 
D.C.L., Regius Professor of Civil Law, Oxford. Fourth Edition 
Revised and Enlarged. Crown 8vo. Js. 6d. 
This edition contains a supplementary chapter giving a brief -sketch of 
the rise of Prussia, and of the state of Germany under the Confederation 
which expired in 1866, and of the steps whereby the German nation has 
regained its political unity in the new Empire. 6 6 It exactly supplies 
a want : it affords a key to much which men read of in their books as 
isolated facts, but of which they have hitherto had no connected exposition 
set before them." — Saturday Review. 

Burke. — EDMUND BURKE, a Historical Study. By John 
Morley, B.A., Oxon. Crown 8vo. fs. 6d. 
" The style is terse and incisive, and brilliant with epigram and 
point. Its sustained power of reasoning, its wide sweep of observation 
and reflection, its elevated ethical and social tone, stamp it as a work of 
high excellence." — Saturday Review. 

Burrows. — WORTHIES OF ALL SOULS : Four Centuries of 
English History. Illustrated from the College Archives. By 
Montagu Burrows, Chichele Professor of Modern History at 
Oxford, Fellow of All Souls. 8vo. 14^. 
"A most amusing as well as a most instructive book. — GUARDIAN. 

CarStare-S. — WILLIAM CARSTARES : a Character and Career 
of the Revolutionary Epoch (1649 — 1715). By Robert Story, 
Minister of Rosneath. 8vo. \2s. 

" William had, however, one Scottish adviser who deserved and 
-possessed more influence than any of the ostensible ministers. This was 
Car stares , one of the most remarkable men of that age. He united great 
scholastic attainments with great aptitude for civil business, and the firm 
faith and ardent zeal of a martyr, with the shrewdness and suppleness of 
a consummate politician. In courage and fidelity he resembled Burnet ; 
but he had what Burnet wanted, judgment, self -command, and a singular 
power of keeping secrets. There was no post to which he might not have 
aspired if he had been a layman, or a priest of the Church of England" 
— Macaulay's History of England. 



a 2 



4 MAC MILL AX'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



Chatterton : A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. By Daniel 

Wilson, LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in 
University College, Toronto. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. 
The EXAMINER thinks this "the most complete and the purest bio- 
graphy of the poet which has yet appeared." 

Chatterton : A STORY OF THE YEAR 1770. By Professor 
Masson, LL.D. Crown Svo. J* 

Cooper.— ATHENE CANTABRIGIENSES. By Charles 
Henry Cooper, F.S.A., and Thompson Cooper, F.S.A. 
Vol. T. 8vo., 1500—85, iSj. ; Vol. EL, 1586—1609, (Sr. 

COX (G. V., M. A.)— RECOLLECTIONS OF OXFORD. 
By G. V. Cox. ALA.. New College, late Esquire Bedel and 
Coroner in the University of Oxford. Cheaper Edition. Crown Svo. 
6s. 

u An amusing farrago of anecdote, and will pleasantly recall in many 
a country parsonage the memory of youthful days." — Times. 

"Daily News. ''—the daily NEWS correspond- 
ence of the War between Germany and France, 1870— 1. Edited 
with Notes and Comments. New Edition. Complete in One 
Volume. With Maps and Plans. Crown 8vo. 6s. 

Dilke. — GREATER BRITAIN. A Record of Travel in English- 
speaking Countries during 1866-7. (America, Australia, India.) 
By Sir Charles Went worth Dilke, M.P. Sixth Edition. 
Crown 8vo. 6s. 

"Many of the subjects discussed in these pages" says the Daily News, 
" are of the widest interest, and such as no man who cares for the future 
of his race and of the world can afford to treat with indifference." 

Drummond of Hawthornden : THE STORY OF HIS 
LIFE AND WRITINGS. By Professor Masson. With Por- 
trait and Vignette engraved by C. H. Jeens. Crown Svo. I or. 6d. 
" Around his hero, Professor Masson groups national and individual 
episodes and sketches of character, which are of the greatest interest, and 
which add to the value of a biographical work which we warmly recom- 
mend to the lovers of thoroughly healthy books. "—Notes and Queries. 

Diirer (Albrecht).— HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF AL- 

BRECHT DURER, of Niirnberg. With a Translation of his 
Letters and Journal, and some account of his Works. By Mrs. 
Charles Heaton. Royal Svo. extra gilt. 31* 6d. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 



Elliott. — LIFE OF HENRY VENN ELLIOTT, of Brighton. 
By Josiah Bateman, M.A., Author of "Life of Daniel Wilson, 
Bishop of Calcutta," &c. With Portrait, engraved by Jeens. 
Extra fcap. 8vo. Third and Cheaper Edition, with Appendix. 6s. 

"A very charming piece of religious biography; no one can read it 
without both pleasure and profit." — British Quarterly Review. 

Elze.— ESSAYS ON SHAKESPEARE. By Dr. Karl Elze. 
Translated with the Author's sanction by L. Dora Schmitz. 
8vo. \2.s. 

"A more desirable contribution to criticism, has not recently been made." 
— Athenaeum. 

European History, Narrated in a Series of Historical 
Selections from the best Authorities. Edited and arranged by 
E. M. Sewell and C. M. Yonge. First Series, crown 8vo. 6s. ; 
Second Series, 1088-1228, crown 8vo. 6s. Third Edition. 
" We know of scarcely anything," says the Guardian, of this volume, 

"which is so likely to raise to a higher level the average standard of 

English education." 

Faraday. — MICHAEL FARADAY. By J. H. Gladstone 
Ph.D., F. R. S. Second Edition, with Portrait engraved by Jeens 
from a photograph by J. Watkins. Crown 8vo. 4.S. 6d. 
PORTRAIT. Artist's Proof. 5*. 

Contents : — /. The Story of his Life. II. Study of his Character. 
III. Fruits of his Experience. IV. His Method of Writing. V. The 
Value of his Discoveries. — Supplementary Portraits. Appendices : — List 
of Honorary Fellowships, etc. 

Forbes.— LIFE AND LETTERS OF JAMES DAVID 
FORBES, F.R.S., late Principal of the United College in the 
University of St. Andrews. By J. C. Shairp, LL.D., Principal 
of the United College in the University of St. Andrews ; P. G. 
Tait, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University 
of Edinburgh; and A. Adams-Reilly, F.R.G.S. 8vo. with 
Portraits, Map, and Illustrations, \6s. 
1 £ Not only a biography that all should read, but a scientific treatise, 
without which the shelves of no physicist's library can be deemed com- 
plete." — Standard. 

Freeman. — Works by Edward A. Freeman, M.A., D.C.L. : — 
HISTORICAL ESSAYS. By Edward Freeman, M.A., Hon. 
D.C.L., late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. Second Edition. 
8vo. ioj". 6d. . 
Contents :—I. "The Mythical and Romantic Elements in L arty 
English History;" II. "The Continuity of English History ;^ III. 
"The Relations between the Crowns of England and Scotland ; IV. 



31 A CM I LLANOS CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



Freeman (E. A.) — continued. 

"St. Thomas of Canterbury and his Biographers :" V. 1 6 The Reign of 
Edward the Third:''' VI. "The Holy Roman Empire;" VII. "The 
Franks and the Gauls;" VIII. "The Early Sieges of Paris;" IX. 
"Frederick the First \ King of Italy :" A'". " The Emperor Frederick the 
Second;" XL "Charles the Bold;" XII. " Presidential Government." 
— " All oj them are well worth reading, and very agreeable to read. He 
never touches a question without adding to our comprehension of it, with- 
out leaving the impression of an ample knowledge, a righteous purpose, a 
■clear and powerful understanding." — Saturday Review. 

A SECOND SERIES OF HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Svo. 
I or. 6d. 

The principal Essays are: — "Ancient Greece and Mediaeval Italy:" 
"Air. Gladstone's Homer and the Homeric Ages:" "The Historians 
of Athens:" "The Athenian Democracy:" "Alexander the Great:" 
6 4 Greece during the Macedonian Period :" 1 'Mbmmsen's History of Borne :" 
"Lucius Cornelius Sulla :" " The Flavian Ccesars." 

HISTORY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, from the Foun- 
dation of the Achaian League to the Disruption of the United 
States. Vol. I. General Introduction, History of the Greek 
Federations. Svo. 2is. 
OLD ENGLISH HISTORY. With Five Coloured Maps. Third 

Edition. Extra fcap. Svo., half-bound. 6s. 
" The book indeed is full of instruction and interest to students of all 
ages, and he must be a well-informed man indeed who will not rise 
from its perusal with clearer and mare accurate ideas of a too much 
neglected portion of English history*" — Spectator. 

HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF WELLS, 
as illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old 
Foundation. Crown Svo. 3^. 6d. 
" The history assumes in Mr. Freeman y s hands a, significance, and, we 
may add, a practical value as suggestive op' what a cathedral ought to be, 
which make it well worthy of mention." — Spectator. 

THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION 
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. Crown Svo. 5*, Second 
Edition, revised. 

THE UNITY OF HISTORY. The "Rede 5 ^ Lecture 
delivered in the Senate House, before the University of Cam- 
bridge, on Friday, May 24th, 1872. Crown Svo. 2s. 
GENERAL SKETCH ' OF EUROPEAN HISTORY. Being 
Vol. I. of a Historical Course for Schools edited by E. A. 
Freeman. i8mo. 3*. 6d. Fourth Edition. 
' ' It supplies the great want of a good foundation for historical teach- 
ing. The scheme is an excellent one, and this instalment has been 
executed in a way that promises much for the volumes that are yet 
to appear" — Educational Times. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 



Galileo.— the private life of galileo. Compiled 

principally from his Correspondence and that of his eldest 
daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, Nun in the Franciscan Convent of 
S. Matthew in Arcetri. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. fs. 6d. 

Gladstone (Right Hon. W. E., M.P.)— juventus 

MUNDI. The Gods and Men of the Heroic Age. Crown 8vo. 

cloth. With Map. 10s. 6d. Second Edition. 
" Seldom" says the Athen^um, u out of the great poems themselves, 
have these Divinities looked so majesiic and respectable. To read these 
brilliant details is like standing on the Olympian threshold and gazing at 
the ineffable brightness within." 

Goethe and Mendelssohn (1821—1831). Translated from the 

German of Dr. Karl Mendelssohn, Son of the Composer, by 
M. E. Von Glehn. From the Private Diaries and Home- 
Letters of Mendelssohn, with Poems and Letters of Goethe never 
~ before printed. Also with two New and Original Portraits, Fac- 
similes, and Appendix of Twenty Letters hitherto unpublished. 
Crown 8vo. $s. Second Edition, enlarged. 
1 8 The volume is most welco?ne, giving us, as it does, vivid though brief 
glimpses of the famous musician as a boy, a youth, and a maiz. But 
above all, it gives us a glowing picture of the boy Mendelssohn at Wei- 
mar i7i its golden days. . . . Every page is full of interest, not 
merely to the musician, but to the general reader. The book is a very 
charming one, on a topic of deep and lasting interest. 1 '' — Standard. 

Goldsmid. — TELEGRAPH AND TRAVEL. A Narrative of 
the Formation and Development of Telegraphic Communication 
between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's 
Government, with incidental Notices of the Countries traversed by 
the Lines. By Colonel Sir Frederic Goldsmid, C.B. K.C.S.I., 
late Director of the Government Indo-European Telegraph. With 
numerous Illustrations and Maps. 8vo. 21s. 
" The second portion of the work, less historical, hit 7nore likely to 
attract the general reader, is composed of bright sketches from Persia, 
Russia, the Crimea, Tartary, and the Indian Peninsula ; both sketches 
being illuminated by a profusion of delicate woodctcts, admirably drawn, 
and as admirably engraved. . . . The merit of the work is a total 
absence of exaggeration, which does not, however, preclude a vividness and 
vigour of style not always characteristic of similar narratives. ' — 
Standard. 

Green.— A SHORT HISTORV OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 
By J. R. Green, M.A., Examiner in the School of Modern 
History, Oxford. With Coloured Maps and Genealogical Tables. 
Crown Svo. Ss. 6d. 

" To say that Mr. Green's book is better than those -which have pre- 



8 MACMILLANS CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



ceded it, mould be to convey a very inadequate impression of its merits. It 
stands alone as the one general history of the country, for the sake of 
which all others, if young and old are wise, will be speedily and surely set 
aside. It is perhaps the highest praise that can be given to it, that it is 
impossible to discover whether it was intended for the yoiing or for the old. 
The size and general look of the book, its vividness of narration, and its 
avoidance of abstruse argument, would place it among schoolbooks ; but 
its fresh and original views, and its general historical power, are only to 
be appreciated by those who have tried their own hand at writing history, 
and who know tJte enormous difficulties of the task." — Mr. Samuel R. 
Gardiner in the Academy. 

Hamerton.— Works by P. G. Hamerton:— 
THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE. With a Portrait of Leonardo da 
Vinci, etched by Leopold Flamexg. Crown Svo. I or. 6d. 

" We have read the whole book with great pleasure, and we can re- 
commend it strongly to all who can appreciate grave reflections on a very 
important subject, excellently illustrated from the resources of a mind 
stored with much reading and much keen obsei~vation of real life.'''' — 
Saturday Review. 

THOUGHTS ABOUT ART. New Edition, revised, with an 
Introduction. Crown Svo. 8s. 6d. 

tc A manual of sound and thorough criticism on arty — Standard. 
" The book is full of thought, and worthy of attentive consideration." — 
Daily News. 

Hole.— A GENEALOGICAL STEMMA OF THE KINGS 
OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. By the Rev. C. Hole, 
M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. On Sheet, Is. 

Hozier (H. M.) — Works by Captain Hexry M. Hozier, 
late Assistant Military Secretary to Lord Napier of Magdala. 
THE SEVEN WEEKS' WAR ; Its Antecedents and Incidents. 
New and Cheaper Edition. With New Preface, Maps, and Plans. 
Crown Svo. 6s. 

"All that Mr. Hozier sa~v of the great events of the war — and he saw 
a large share of them — he describes in clear a?id vivid language" — 
Saturday Review. 

THE BRITISH EXPEDITION TO ABYSSINIA. Compiled 
from Authentic Documents. Svo. gs. 

" This," says the Spectator, "will be the account of the Abys- 
sinian Expedition for professional reference, if not for professional 
reading. Its literary merits are really very great." 

Hiibner. — A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD IN 1S71. By 

M. Le Barox Hubner, formerly Ambassador and Minister. 
Translated by Lady Hereert. 2 vols. Svo. 2$f. 
' ' It is difficult to do ample justice to this pleasant narrative of travel 
. ... it does not contain a single dull paragraph"— Morning Post. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 



Hughes. — MEMOIR OF A BROTHER. By Thomas Hughes, 
M.P., Author of ''Tom Brown's School Days." With Portrait of 
George Hughes, after Watts. Engraved by Jeens. Crown 
Svo. 5 j. Sixth Edition. 

e< The boy who can read this book without deriving from it some addi- 
tional impulse towards honourable, manly, and independent conduct, has 
no good stuff in him" — Daily News. " We have read it with the 
deepest gratification and with real admiration" — Standard. "The 
biography throughout is replete with interest." — Morning Post. 

Hunt.— HISTORY OF ITALY. By the Rev. W. Hunt, M.A.. 
Being the Fourth Volume of the Historical Course for Schools, 
Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. i8mo. $s. 
"Mr. Hunt gives its a most compact but very readable little book, con- 
taining in small compass a very complete outline of a complicated and 
perplexing subject. It is a book which may be safely recommended to 
others besides schoolboys." — John Bull. 

Huyshe (Captain G. L.)— THE RED RIVER EXPE- 
DITION. By Captain G. L. Huyshe, Rifle Brigade, late on 
the Staff of Colonel Sir Garnet Wolseley. With Maps. 
Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
The Athenaeum calls it ' i an enduring authentic record of one of 

the most creditable achievements ever accomplished by the British Army." 

Irving.— THE ANNALS OF OUR TIME. A Diurnal of Events, 
Social and Political, Home and Foreign, from the Accession of 
Queen Victoria to the Peace of Versailles. By Joseph Irving. 
Third Edition. Svo. half-bound. i6s. 
" We have before us a trusty and ready guide to the events of the 

past thirty years, available equally for the states?nan, the politician, the 

public writer, and the general reader." — Times. 

Jebb. — THE CHARACTERS OF THEOPHRASTUS. An 
English Translation from a Revised Text. With Introduction and 
Notes. By R. C. Jebb, M.A., Fellow and Assistant Tutor of 
Trinity College, Cambridge, and Public Orator of the University. 
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 6d. 

Kingsley (Charles). — Works by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, 
M.A., Rector of Eversley and Canon of Westminster. (For 
other Works by the same Author, see Theological and Belles 
Lettres Catalogues.) 

ON THE ANCIEN REGIME as it existed on the Continent before 
the French Revolution. Three Lectures delivered at the 
Royal Institution. Crown 8vo. 6s. 



io MACMILLAJSTS CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



Kingsiey, Charles — continued. 

AT LAST : A CHRISTMAS in the WEST INDIES. With nearly 
Fifty Illustrations. Third and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 

Mr. Kingsley's dream of forty years was at last fulfilled, when he 
started on a Christmas expedition to the West Indies, for the purpose of 
becoming personally acquainted with the scenes which he has so vividly 
described in " Westward Ho These two volumes are the journal of his 
voyage. Records of natural history, sketches of tropical landscape, chapters 
on education, views of society, all find their place. 6 ' We can only say 
that Mr. Ringslefs account of a 4 Christmas in the West Indies ' is in 
every way worthy to be classed among his. happiest productions.'''' — 
Standard. 

THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON. A Series of Lectures 
delivered before the University of Cambridge. 8vo. \2s. 

PLAYS AND PURITANS, and other Historical Essays. With 
Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh. Crown 8vo. $s. 

In addition to the Essay mentioned in the title, this volume contains 
other two — one on "Sir Walter Raleigh and his Time,'''' and one on 
Froudis i ' History of England. " 

Kklgsiey (Henry, F.R.G.S.)— -For other Works by same 
Author, see Belles Lettres Catalogue. 
TALES OF OLD TRAVEL. Re-narrated by Henry Kingsley, 
F.R.G.S. With Eight Illustrations by Huard. Fourth Edition. 
Crown 8vo. 6s. 

u We know no better book for those who want knowledge or seek to 
refresh it. As for the 6 sensational,' most novels are tame compared with 
these narratives" — Athen/eum. 

Labouchere. — diary of the besieged resident 

IN PARIS. Reprinted from the Daily News, with several New 
Letters and Preface. By Henry Labouchere. Third Edition. 
Crown 8vo. 6s. 

LaOCOOn. — Translated from the Text of Lessing, with Preface and 
Notes by the Right Hon. Sir Robert J. Phillimore, D.C.L. 
With Photographs. 8vo. \2s. 

Leonardo da Vinci and his Works. — Consisting of a 

Life of Leonardo Da Vinci, by Mrs. Charles W. Heaton, 
Author of <£ Albrecht Diirer of Niimberg," &c, an Essay on his 
Scientific and Literary Works by Charles Christopher 

, Black, M.A., and an account of his more important Paintings 
and Drawings. Illustrated with Permanent Photographs. Royal 
8vo. cloth, extra gilt. ^\s.-6d. 

" A beautiful vohc?jie, both without and within. Messrs. Macmillan 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. n 



are conspicuous among publishers for the choice binding and printing of 
their books, and this is got up in their best style. . . . No English 
publication that we know of has so thoroughly and attj-aciively collected 
together all that is known of Leonardo" — Times. 

Liechtenstein,— HOLLAND HOUSE. By Princess Marie 
Liechtenstein. With Five Steel Engravings by C. H. Jeens, 
after Paintings by Watts and other celebrated Artists, and 
numerous Illustrations drawn by Professor P. H. Delamotte, and 
engraved on Wood by J. D. Cooper, W. Palmer, andjEWiTT & 
Co. Third and Cheaper Edition. Medium 8vo. cloth elegant. 
1 6 s. 

Also, an Edition containing, in addition to the above, about 40 
Illustrations by the Woodbury-type process, and India Proofs of 
the Steel Engravings. Two vols, medium 4to. half morocco 
elegant. 4/. 4^. 

' ' When every strictly just exception shall have been taken, she may be 
conscientiously congratulated by the most scrupulous critic on the produc- 
tion of a useful, agreeable, beautifully '-illustrated, and attractive book" — 
Times. " It would take up more room than we can spare to enumerate 
all the interesting suggestions and notes which are to be found in these 

volumes The woodcuts are admirable, and some of the autographs 

are very interesting" — Pall Mall Gazette. 

Macarthur.— HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. By Margaret 
Macarthur. Being the Third Volume of the Historical Course 
for Schools, Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. 181110. 2$. 
" It is an excellent summary, unimpeachable as to facts, and putting 

them in the clearest and most impartial light attainable" — Guardian. 

" No previous History of Scotland of the same bulk is anything like so 

trustworthy, or deserves to be so extensively used as a text-book." — Globe. 

Macmillan (Rev. Hugh). — For other Works by same Author, 
see Theological and Scientific Catalogues. 

HOLIDAYS ON HIGH LANDS ; or, Rambles and Incidents in 
search of Alpine Plants. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 
Globe 8vo. cloth. 6s. 

"Botanical knowledge is blended with a love of nature, a pious en- 
thusiasm, and a rich felicity of diction not to be met with in any works 
of kindred character, if we except those of Hugh Miller." — Telegraph. 
" Mr. M.'s glowing pictures of Scandinavian scenery." — Saturday 
Review. 

Mahaffy. — SOCIAL LIFE IN GREECE FROM HOMER TO 
MENANDER. By the Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, M.A., Fellow of 
Trinity College, Dublin. Crown 8vo. Js. 6d. 

"No omission greatly detracts from the merits of a book so fresh in 
its thought and so independent in its criticism. " — Athenaeum. 



12 MACMILLAJSTS CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



Martineau. — BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 1852— 1868. 
By Harriet Martineau. Third and Cheaper Edition, with 
New Preface. Crown 8vo. 6s. 

"Miss Martineau 's large literary powers a?id her fine intellectual 
training make these little sketches more instructive, and constittite them 
more genuinely works of art, than many more ambitious and diffuse 
biographies. Fortnightly Review. 

Masson (David).— For other Works by same Author, see Philo- 
sophical and Belles Lettres Catalogues. 
LIFE OF JOHN MILTON. Narrated in connection with the 
Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time. By 
David Masson, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English 
Literature in the University of Edinburgh. Vols. I. to III. with 
Portraits, £2 12s. Vol. II., 1638— 1643. Svo. 16s, Vol. III. 
1643 — 1649. Svo. i8j. 
This work is not o?ily a Biography, but also a continuous Political, Eccle- 
siastical, and Literary History of England through Milton's whole ti?ne. 

CHATTERTON : A Story of the Year 1770. By David Masson, 
LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh. Crown Svo. $s. 

" One of this popular writer's best essays on the English poets ." — 
Standard. 

THE THREE DEVILS : Luther's, Goethe's, and Milton's ; and 
other Essays. Crown Svo. $s. 

Maurice-— THE FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKS ; AND OTHER 
LECTURES. By the Rev. F. D. Maurice. Edited with Pre- 
face, by Thomas Hughes, M.P. down Svo. ioj. 6d. 

" The high, pure, sympathetic, and truly charitable nature of Mr. 
Maurice is delightfully visible throughout these lectures, which are ex- 
cellently adapted to spread a love of literature amongst the people." — 
Daily News. 

Mayor (J. E. 13.) — WORKS edited by John E. B. Mayor, 
M.A., Kennedy Professor of Latin at Cambridge : — 

CAMBRIDGE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Part II. 
Autobiography of Matthew Robinson. Fcap. Svo. 5^. 6d. 

LIFE OF BISHOP BEDELL. By his Son. Fcap. Svo. 3*. 6d. 

Mendelssohn. — LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS. By 
- Ferdinand Hiller. Translated by M. E. Yon Glehn. With 
Portrait from a Drawing by Karl Muller, never before pub- 
lished. Second Edition. Crown Svo. Js. 6d. 
" This is a very i?iteresting addition to our knowledge of the great 
German composer. It reveals him to us under a new light, as the warm- 
hearted comrade, the musician whose soul was in his work, and the home- 
loving, domestic man. ,} — Standard. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 



13 



Merewether.— BY SEA AND BY LAND. Being a Trip 
through Egypt, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, and 
America — all Round the World. By Henry Alworth Mere- 
wether, one of Her Majesty's Counsel. Crown 8vo. Ss. 6d. 
" A most racy and entertaining account of a trip all round the world. 

It is a book which, without professing to deal in description, gives the 

reader a most vivid impression of the places, persons, and things it treats 

^"—Glasgow Daily News. 

Michael Angelo Buonarroti ; Sculptor, Painter, Architect. 
The Story of his Life and Labours. By C. C. Black, M.A. 
Illustrated by 20 Permanent Photographs. Royal 8vo. cloth 
elegant, 31^. 6d. 

" The story of Michael Angelo s life remains interesting whatever be the 
manner of telling it, and supported as it is by this beautiful series of photo- 
graphs, the volume must take rank among the most splendid of Christmas 
books, fitted to serve and to outlive the season — Pall Mall Gazette. 
e< Deserves to take a high place among the works of art of the year." — 
Saturday Review. 

Mitford (A. B.)— TALES OF OLD JAPAN. By A. B. 

Mitford, Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan. 
With upwards of 30 Illustrations, drawn and cut on Wood by 
Japanese Artists. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
" These very original volumes will always be interesting as memorials 
of a most exceptional society, while regarded simply as tales, they are 
sparkling, sensational, and dramatic, and the originality of their ideas 
and the quaintness of their language give them a most captivating 
-piquancy. The illustrations are extremely interesting, and for the 
curious in such matters have a special and particular value.'''' — Pall 
Mall Gazette. 

Morison. — THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAINT BERNARD, 
Abbot of Clair vaux. By James Cotter Morison, M.A. Cheaper 
Edition. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. 
The Pall Mall Gazette calls this " one of the best contributions in 

our literature towards a vivid, intelligent, and worthy knowledge of 

European interests and thoughts and feelings during the twelfth century. 

A delightful and instructive volume, and one of the best prodzccts of the 

modern historic spirit." 

Murray.— THE BALLADS AND SONGS OF SCOTLAND, 
IN VIEW OF THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CHA- 
RACTER OF THE PEOPLE. By J. Clark Murray, LL.D., 
Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in McGill College, 
Montreal. Crown 8vo. 6s. 

Napoleon.— THE HISTORY OF NAPOLEON I. By P. 
Lanfrey. A Translation with the sanction of the Author. Vols. 
I. and II. 8vo. price 12s. each. [Vol. III. in the Press. 

I he Pall Mall Gazette says it is " one of the most striking 



14 MA CMILL A N'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



pieces of historical composition of which France has to boast, " and the 
Saturday Review calls it "an excellent translation of a work on every 
ground desei ving to be translated. It is unquestionably and immeasurably 
the best that has been produced. It is in fact the only work to which we 
can ticrn for an accurate and trustworthy narrative of that extraordinary 
ca?eer. . . . The book is the best and indeed the only trustworthy history 
of Napoleon which has been written." 

Owens College Essays and Addresses. — By Pro- 
fessors and Lecturers of Owens College, Manchester. 
Published in Commemoration of the Opening of the New College 
Buildings, October 7th, 1873. Svo. 14s. 
This volume contains papers by the Duke of Devonshire, K. G., F.R.S.; 
Professor Greenwood {Principal) ; Professor Roscoe, F.R.S. ; Professor 
Balfour Stezv art, F.R.S. ; Professor Core ; W. Boyd Dawkms, F.R.S. : 
Professor Reynolds ; Professor Williamson, F.R.S. ; Professor Gamgee ; 
Professor Wilkins ; Professor Theodores ; Hermann Breymann ; Pro- 
fessor Bryce, D. C. L. ; Professor fevons ; and Professor Ward. 

Palgrave (Sir F.) — HISTORY OF NORMANDY AND 
OF ENGLAND. By Sir Francis Palgrave, Deputy Keeper 
of Her Majesty's Public Records. Completing the History to the 
Death of William Pavfus. Vols. II. — IV. 21s. each. 

Palgrave (W. G.)— a narrative of a year's 

JOURNEY THROUGH CENTRAL AND EASTERN 
ARABIA, 1862-3. By William Gifford Palgrave, late of 
the Eighth Regiment Bombay N. I. Sixth Edition. With Maps^ 
Plans, and Portrait of Author, engraved on steel by Jeens. Crown 
Svo. 6s. 

" He has not only written one of the best books on the Arabs and one 
of the best books on Arabia, buf he has done so in a manner that must 
comma7id the respect no less than the admiration of his fillow-comitry- 
men." — Fortnightly Review. 

ESSAYS ON EASTERN QUESTIONS. By W. Gifford 
Palgrave. Svo. 10s. 6d. 

u These essays are full of anecdote and interest. The book is decidedly 
a valuable addition to the stock of literature on which men must 
base their opinion of the difficult social and political problems sug- 
gested by the designs of Russia, the capacity of Mahometans '' for 
sovereignty ; and the good government and retention of Iudia. >c — 
Saturday Review. 

ESSAYS ON ART. Extra fcap. Svo. 6s 

Mulready — Dyce — Holman Hunt — Herbert — Poetry, Prose, and Sen* 
sai-ionalisvi in Art— Sculpture in England— The Albert Cross, &c. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 15 



Pater.— STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE RENAIS- 
SANCE. By Walter H. Pater, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose 
College, Oxford. Crown 8vo. *js. 6d. 
The Pall Mall Gazette says: " The book is very remarkable 

among contemporary books, not only for the finish and care with 

which its essays are severally written, but for the air of deliberate 

and polished form upon the wholej* 

Patteson.— LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN COLERIDGE 
PATTESON, D.D., Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands. 
By Charlotte M. Yonge, Author of " The Heir of Redclyffe." 
With Portraits after Richmond and from Photograph, engraved 
by Jeens. With Map. Fourth and Cheaper Edition. Two Vols, 
crown 8vo. 12s. 

c 1 Miss Yonge] s work is in one respect a model biography. It is made 
-up almost entirely of Patteson? s own letters. Aware that he had left his 
home once and for all, his correspondence took the form of a diary, and 
as we read oil we come to know the man, and to love him almost as if we 
had seen him" — Athenaeum. "Such a, life, with its grand lessons of 
unselfishness, is a blessing and a7t honour to the age in which it is lived ; 
the biography cannot be studied without pleasure and profit, and indeed 
we should think little of, the man who did not rise from the study of it 
better a?td wiser. Neither the Church nor the nation which produces 
such sons need ever despair oj its future" — Saturday Review. 

Pri chard. — THE ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA. From 
1859 to 1868. The First Ten Years of Administration under the 
Crown. By Iltudu^ Thomas Prichard, Barrister-at-Law. 
Two Vols. Demy 8vo. With Map. 21 s. 

" It is a work which every Englishman in India ought to add to his 
library" — Star of India. 

Raphael.— RAPHAEL OF URBINO AND HI? FATHER 
GIOVANNI SANTI. By J. D. Passavant, formerly Director 
of the Museum at Frankfort. With Twenty Permanent Photo- 
graphs. Royal Svo. Handsomely bound. ^is. 6d. 
The Saturday Review says of them, " We have seen not a few 

elegant specimens of Mr. Woodbury 's nezv process, but we have seen 

none that equal these." 

Reynolds.-i-siR toshua Reynolds as a portrait 

PAINTER. AN ESSAY. By J. Churton Collins, B.A. 
Balliol College, Oxford. Illustrated by a Series of Portraits of 
distinguished Beauties of the Court of George III. ; reproduced 
in Autotype from Proof Impressions of the celebrated Engravings, 

• by Valentine Green, Thomas Watson, F. R. Smith, E. 
Fisher, and others. Folio half-morocco. £$ $s. 

This volume contains twenty photographs, izearly all of which are full 



i6 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



length portraits. They have been carefully selected from a long list, and 
will be found to contain some of the artist's most finished and cele- 
brated works. Where it is possible brief memoirs ha ve been given. The 
autotypes, which have been made as perfect as possible, will do something 
to supply the want created by the excessive rarity of the original engravings, 
and enable the public to possess, at a moderate price, twenty faithful repre- 
sentations of the choicest works of our greatest national painter. 

Robinson (H. Crabb).— the diary, reminiscences, 

AND CORRESPONDENCE, OF HENRY CRABB ROBIN- 
SON, Barrister-at-Law. Selected and Edited by Thomas 
Sadler, Ph.D. With Portrait. Third and Cheaper Edition. 
Two Vols. Crown 8vo. 12s. 

The Daily News says : " The two books which are most likely to 
survive change of literary taste, and to charm while instructing generation 
after generation, are the ' Diary'' of Pepys and BoswdVs 6 Life of 
Johnson' The day will come when to these many will add the ' Diary of 
Henry Crabb Robinson.' Excellences like those which render the per. 
revelations of Pepys and the observations of Bo swell such pleasant reading 
abound in this work." 

Rogers (James E. Thorold). — HISTORICAL GLEAN- 
INGS : A Series of Sketches. Montague, Walpole, Adam Smith, 
Cobbett. By Prof. Rogers. Crown Svo. 4J. 6d. Second Series. 
Wiklif, Laud, Wilkes, and Home Tooke. Crown Svo. 6s. 

Seeley (Professor). — lectures and ESSAYS. By 

J. R. Seeley, M.A. Professor of Modern History in the 
University of Cambridge. Svo. 10s. 6d. 
Contents: — Roman Imperialism: 1. The Great Roman Revolu- 
tion ; 2. The Proximate Cause of the Fall of the Roman Empire ; 
3. The Later Empire. — Milton's Political Opinions — Milton's Poetry 
— Elementary Principles in Art — Liberal Education in Universities 
• — English in Schools — The Church as a Teacher of Morality — The 
Teaching of Politics : an Inaugural Lecture delivered at Cambridge. 

Sime. — HISTORY OF GERMANY. By James Sime, M.A, 
iSmo. $s. Being Vol. V. of the Historical Course for Schools, 
Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. 
" This is a remarkably clear and impressive History of Germany. Its 
great events are wisely kept as central figures, and the smaller events are 
carefully kept not only subordinate and subservient, but most skilfully 
woven into the texture of the historical tapestry presented to the eye." — 
Standard. 



Somers (Robert).— THE SOUTHERN STATES SINCE 
THE WAR. By Robert Somers. With Map. Svo. 9* 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 



Strangford.— EGYPTIAN SHRINES AND SYRIAN SEPUL- 
CHRES, including a Visit to Palmyra. By Emily A. Beaufort 
(Viscountess Strangford), Author of " The Eastern Shores of 
the Adriatic." New Edition. Crown 8vo. Is. 6d. 

Tacitus.— THE HISTORY OF TACITUS. Translated into 
English by A. J. Church, M.A. and W. J. Brodribb, M.A. 
With a Map and Notes. New and Cheaper Edition, revised. 
Crown 8vo. 6s. 

This work is characterised by the Spectator as a " scholarly and 
faithful translation" 

THE AGRICOLA AND GERMANIA. Translated into English by 
A. J. Church, M.A. and W. J. Brodribb, M.A. With Maps 
and Notes. Extra fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. 
The ATHENiEUM says of this work that it is " a version at once read- 
able and exact, which may be perused with pleasure by all, and consulted 
with advantage by the classical student." 

Thomas.— THE LIFE OF JOHN THOMAS, Surgeon of the 
"Earl of Oxford" East Indiaman, and First Baptist Missionary to 
Bengal. By C. B. Lewis, Baptist Missionary. Svo. iqs. 6d. 

Thompson.— HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Edith Thomp- 
son. Being Vol. II. of the Historical Course for Schools, Edited 
by Edward A. Freeman, D. C. L. Fourth Edition. i8mo. 2s. 6d. 

" Freedom from prejudice, simplicity of style, and accuracy of state- 
ment, are the characteristics of this volume. It is a trustworthy text-book, 
and likely to be generally serviceable in schools." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
i 6 In its great accuracy and correctness of detail it stands far ahead of the 
general run of school manuals. Its arrangement, too, is clear, and its 
style simple and straightforward." — -Saturday Review. 

Todhunter.— THE CONFLICT OF STUDIES ; AND 
OTHER ESSAYS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
EDUCATION. By Isaac Todhunter, M.A., F.R.S., late 
Fellow and Principal Mathematical Lecturer of St. John's College, 
Cambridge. 8vo. ids. 6d. 
Contents : — I. The Conflict of Studies. II. Competitive Exa- 
minations. III. Private Study of Mathematics. IV. Academical 
Reform. V. Elementary Geometry. VI. The Mathematical T?-ipos. 

Trench (Archbishop).— For other Works by the same Author, 
see Theological and Belles Lettres Catalogues, and 
pp. 27, 28, of this Catalogue. 
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, and other Lectures 
on the Thirty Years' War. By R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., 
Archbishop of Dublin. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 
Fcap. 8vo. 4J. 

B 



iS MACMILLAJSrS CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 



Trench, Archbishop — continued. 

PLUTARCH, HIS LIFE, HIS LIVES, AXD HIS MORALS. 
Five Lectures by Richard Chexeyix Trench, D.D., Arch- 
bishop of Dublin. Second Edition, enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 6d. 
The Athenaeum speaks of it as il A little volume in which the 
amusing and the instructive are judiciously combined." 

Trench (Mrs. R.)--remaixs of the late MRS. 

RICHARD TRENCH. Being Selections from her Journals, 
Letters, and other Papers. Edited by Archbishop Trench. 
New and Cheaper Issue, with Portrait. Svo. 6s. 

Wallace.— THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO: the Land of the 

Orang Utan and the Bird of Paradise. By Alfred Russel 
Wallace. A Narrative of Travel with Studies of Man and 
Nature. With Maps and Illustrations. Fifth Edition. Crown 
Svo. js. 6a. 

Dr. Hooker ; in his address to the British Association, spoke thus of the 
author : — 1 ' Of Mr. Wallace and his many contributions to philosophical 
biology it is not easy to speak without enthusiasm ; for, putting aside their 
great merits, he, throughout his writings, with a modesty as rare as 1 
believe it to be unconscious, forgets his nun unquestioned claim to the honour 
of having originated, independently of Mr. Darwin, the theories which 
he so ably defends." 

4 * The result is a vivid picture of tropical life, which may be read with 
unflagging ijiterest, a?id a sufficient account of his scientific conclusions to 
stimulate our appetite without wearying us by detail. In slwrt, we may 
safely say that we have never read a more agreeable book of its kind." — 
Saturday Rev lew. 

Waller,— SIX WEEKS IN THE SADDLE : A PAINTER'S 
JOURNAL IN ICELAND. By S. E. Waller. With Illus- 
trations by the Author. Crown Svo. 6s. 
li An exceedingly pleasant and naturally written little book. . . . 
Mr. Waller has a clever pencil, a7id the text is zuell illustrated with his 
'mm sketches." —Tidies. "A very lively and readable book." — Athe- 
N\EUM. u A bright little book, admirably illustrated." — SPECTATOR. 

Ward (Professor).— THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA IN THE 
THIRTY YEARS' WAR. Two Lectures, with Notes and Illus- 
trations. By Adolphus W. Ward, M.A., Professor of History 
in Owens College, Manchester. Extra fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. 
" We have never read," says the SATURDAY REVIEW, "any lectures 

which bear i7wre thoroughly the impress of one who has a true a?id vigorous 

grasp of the subject in ha?id. " 

Ward (J.)— EXPERIENCES OF A DIPLOMATIST. Being 
recollections of Germany founded on Diaries kept during the years 
1S40— 1S70. By Johx Ward, C.B., late H.M. Minister- 
Resident to the Hanse Towns. Svo. 10s. 6d. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 19 



Warren.— AN ESSAY ON GREEK FEDERAL COINAGE. 

By the Hon. J. Leicester Warren, M.A. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 

» 

WedgWOOd. — JOHN WESLEY AND THE EVANGELICAL 
REACTION of the Eighteenth Centufy. By Julia Wedgwood. 
Crown 8vo. Ss. 6d. 

" In style and intellectual power, in breadtfy of view and clearness of 
insight, Miss Wedgwood } s book far surpasses^ all rivals — Athenaeum. 

Wilson.— A MEMOIR OF GEORGE * WILSON, M. D., 
F.R.S.E., Regius Professor of Technology in the University of 
Edinburgh. By his Sister. New EdCtion. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
il An exquisite and touching portrait of a rare and beautiful spirit." — 

Guardian. 

Wilson (Daniel, LL.D.) — Wor£s by Daniel Wilson, 
LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in University 
College, Toronto : — £ 
PREHISTORIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND. New Edition, 

with numerous Illustrations. Two Vols, demy 8vo. 36s. 
" One of the most interesting, learned, and elegant works we have 
seen for a long time." — Westminster Review. 

PREHISTORIC MAN. New Edition, revised and partly re-written, 

with numerous Illustrations. One vol. 8vo. lis. 
CHATTERTON : A Biographical Study. By Daniel Wilson, 
LL. D. , Professor of History and English Literature in University 
College, Toronto. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. 

Wyatt (Sir M. Digby).-— FINE ART : a Sketch of its 
History, Theory, Practice, and application to Industry. A Course 
of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge. By 
Sir M. Digby Wyatt, M.A. Slade Professor of Fine Art. 
8vo. 10s. 6d. 

" A11 excellent handbook for the student of art." — Graphic. " The 
hook abounds in valuable matter, and will therefore be read with 
pleasure and profit by lovers of art." — Daily News. 

Yonge (Charlotte M.)— Works by Charlotte M. Yonge, 
Author of "The Heir of Redclyfife," &c. &c. :— 
A PARALLEL HISTORY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND : 
consisting of Outlines and Dates. Oblong 4to. 3J. 6d. 

CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. From Rollo to Edward 
II. Extra fcap. 8vo. Second Edition, enlarged. 5^. 

A Second Series, THE WARS IN FRANCE. Extra fcap. 
8vo. 5 j. Second Edition. 
" Instead of dry details," says the NONCONFORMIST, " we have living 
pictures, faithfttl, vivid, and striking." 

B 2 



20 



MACJIILLAX'S CATALOGUE OF 



Young (Julian Charles, M.A.) — a MEMOIR OF 

CHARLES MAYNE YOUNG, Tragedian, with Extracts 

from his Son's Journal. By Julian Charles Young, M.A. 

Rector of Ilmington. With Portraits and Sketches. New and 

Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. Js. 6d. 
u In iliis budget of anecdotes, fables, and gossipy old and new, relative to 
Scott, Moore, Chalmers, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Croker, Mathews, the 
third and fourth Georges, -Bowles, Bechford, Lockhart, Wellington, Peel, 
Louis Napoleon, D' Orsay, Dickens, Thackeray, Louis Blanc, Gibson^ 
Constable, and Stanfeld, etc. etc. , the reader must be hard indeed to please 
who cannot find entertainment." — Pall Mall Gazette. 



POLITICS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL 
ECONOMY, LAW, AND KINDRED 
SUBJECTS. 

Baxter.— NATIONAL INCOME : The United Kingdom. By 
R. Dudley Baxter, M.A. Svo. y. 6d. 

Bernard.— FOUR LECTURES OX SUBTECTS CONNECTED 
WITH DIPLOMACY. By Montague Bernard, M.A., 
Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Oxford. 
Svo. qs. 

"Singularly interesting lectures, so able, clear, and attractive.''' — Spec- 
tator. 

Eright (John, M. P.)— SPEECHES ON QUESTIONS OF 
PUBLIC POLICY. By the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P, 
Edited by Professor Thorold Rogers. Author's Popular Edition. 
Globe Svo. 3J. 6d. 
' i Mr. Brighfs speeches will always deserz^e to be studied, as an 
apprenticeship to popular and parliamentary oratojy ; they will form 
materials for the history of our time, and many brillia?it passages, 
per/ux_ps some entire speeches, will really beco??ie a part of the living Htera* 
ture of England." — Daily News. 

LIBRARY EDITION. Two Yols. Svo. With Portrait. 25* 

Cairnes. — Works by J. E. Cairnes, M.A., Emeritus Professor of 
Political Economy in University College, London. 

ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, THEORETICAL 
and APPLIED. By J. E. Cairnes, M.A., Professor of Political 
Economy in University College, London. Svo. \os. 6d. 

" The production of one of the ablest of living economists." — Athe- 
naeum. 



WORKS IN POLITICS, ETC. 



2T 



C a i r n e s — continued. 
POLITICAL ESSAYS. Svo. los. 6d. 

The Saturday Review says, " We recently expressed our high 
admiration of the former volume ; and the present one is no less remark- 
able for the qualities of clear statement, sound logic, and candid treat- 
ment of opponents which were conspicuous in its predecessor. . . . We 
may safely say thai none of Mr. MilPs many disciples is a worthier repre- 
sentative of the best qualities of their master than Professor Cairnes" 

SOME LEADING PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 
NEWLY EXPOUNDED. Svo. 14J. 

Contents : — Part I. Value. Part II. Labour and Capital. Part 
III. International Trade. 

' ' A work which is perhaps the most valuable contribution to the science 
made since the publication, a quarter of a century since, of Mr. MilVs 
'Principles of Political Economy.'* " — Daily News. 

Christie. — THE BALLOT AND CORRUPTION AND 
EXPENDITURE AT ELECTIONS, a Collection of Essays and 
Addresses of different dates. By W. D. Christie, C.B., formerly 
Her Majesty's Minister to the Argentine Confederation and to 
Brazil ; Author of " Life of the First Earl of Shaftesbury." Crown 
8vo. 4s. 6d. 

Clarke.— EARLY ROMAN LAW. THE REGAL PERIOD. 
By E. C. Clarke, M.A., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Law, 
Lecturer in Law and Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge. 

' £ Mr. Clarke has brought together a great mass of valuable matter in 
an accessible form. " — Saturday Review. 

Corfield (Professor W. H.)— A DIGEST OF FACTS 

RELATING TO THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION 
OF SEWAGE. By W. H. Corfield, M. A., M.B., Professor of 
Hygiene and Public Health at University College, London. 8vo. 
\os. 6d. Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. 

<£ Mr, Corfield'' s work is entitled to rank as a standard authority, no 
less than a convenient handbook, in all matters relating to sewage." 
— ATHENAEUM. 

Fawcett. — Works by Henry Fawcett, M.A., M.P., Fellow of 

Trinity Hall, and Professor of Political Economy in the University 

of Cambridge : — 
THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF THE BRITISH 

LABOURER. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^ 
MANUAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. Fourth Edition, with 

New Chapters on the Nationalization of the Land and Local 

Taxation. Crown 8vo. \2s. 
The Daily News says: "It forms one of the best introductions to the 



M A CM ILL A N 'S CATALOGUE OF 



Fawcett (H.) — continued. 

principles of the science, and to its practical applications hi the problems 
of modem, and especially of English, government and society." 

PAUPERISM : ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES. Crown Svo. 

The Athenaeum calls the work (( a repertory of interesting and well- 
digested information." 

SPEECHES ON SOME CURRENT POLITICAL QUES- 
TIONS. Svo. icxr. 6d. 

" They will help to educate, -not perhaps, parties, but the educators of 
parties." — Daily News. 

ESSAYS ON POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SUBJECTS. By 
Professor Fawcett, M.P., and Millicent Garrett 
Fawcett. Svo. iot. 6d. 

" They will all repay the perusal of the thinking reader." — Daily 
News. 

Fawcett (Mrs.) — Works by Millicent Garrett Fawcett. 

POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR BEGINNERS. WITH QUES- 
TIONS. New Edition. iSmo. 2s. 6d. 

The Daily News calls it (i clear, compact, and comprehensive;" and 
the Spectator says, "Mrs. Fawcett* s treatise is perfectly suited to Us 
purpose." 

TALES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, Crown Svo. Jr. 

u The idea is a good one, and it is quite wonderful what a mass of 
economic teaching the author manages to co?npi'ess into a small space... The 
true doctrines of International Trade, Currency, ajid the ratio between 
Production and Population, are set before us and illustrated in a masterly 
manner P — Athen.eum. 

Freeman (E. A.), M.A., D.C.L.— COMPARATIVE 

POLITICS. Lectures at the Royal Institution, to which is 
added " The Unity of History," being the Rede Lecture delivered 
at Cambridge in 1872. Svo. 14J. 

" We find in Mr. Freemarts new volume the same sotind, careful, 
comprehensive qualities whicJi have long ago raised him to so high a place 
amongst historical writers. For historical discipline, then, as well as 
historical infor??iation, Mr. Freeman 1 s book is full of value." — Pall 
Mall Gazette. 

Godkin (James). — the land WAR IN IRELAND. A 

History for the Times. By James Godkin, Author of ' ' Ireland 
and her Churches," late Irish Correspondent of the Times. Svo. 
12s. 

" There is probably no other account so compendi/rus and so complete" — 
Fortnightly Review. 



WORKS IN POLITICS, ETC. 



23 



Goschen. — REPORTS AND SPEECHES ON LOCAL TAXA- 
TION. By George J. Goschen, M.P. Royal 8vo. $k 
" The vohi??ie contains a vast mass of information of the highest value" 
— Athenaeum. 

Guide to the Unprotected, in Every Day Matters Re- 
lating to Property and Income. By a Banker's Daughter. 
Fourth Edition, Revised. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3.?. 6d. 

• ;< 'Many an unprotected female will bless the head which planned and 
the hand which compiled this admirable little manual. . . . This book 
was very much wanted, and it could not have been better done" — 
Morning Star. 

Hill.— CHILDREN OF THE STATE. THE TRAINING OF 
JUVENILE PAUPERS. By Florence Hill. Extra fcap. 
8vo. cloth. 5j. 

Historicus. — LETTERS ON SOME QUESTIONS OF 
INTERNATIONAL LAW. Reprinted from the Times, with 
considerable Additions. 8vo. fsf ' 6d. Also, ADDITIONAL 
LETTERS. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 

Jevons. — Works by W. Stanley Jevons, M.A., Professor of 
Logic and Political Economy in Owens College, Manchester. (For 
other Works by the same Author, see Educational and Philo- 
sophical Catalogues.) 

THE COAL QUESTION : An Inquiry Concerning the Progress 
of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal Mines. 
Second Edition, revised. 8vo. 10s. 6d. 

" The question of our supply of 'coal '" says the Pall Mall Gazette, 
" becomes a question obviously of life or death. . . . The whole case is 
stated with admirable clearness and cogency. . . . We may regard his 
statements as unanswered and practically established." 

THE THEORY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 8vo. 9^ 

Cl ''Professor Jevons has done invaluable service by courageously claiming 
political economy to be strictly a branch of Applied Mathematics." 
— Westminster Review. 

Macdonell.— THE LAND QUESTION, with special 
REFERENCE TO ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. By 
John Macdonell, Barrister-at-Law. 8vo. 10s. 6d. 

" His book ought to be 011 the table of every land reformer, a7id will be 
found to contain many interesting pacts. Mr. Macdonell may be congratu- 
lated on having made a most valuable contribution to the study of a question 
that cannot be examined from too many points." — Examiner. 



24 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF 



Martin.— THE STATESMAN'S YEAR-BOOK: A Statistical 
and Historical Annual of the States of the Civilized World. 
Handbook for Politicians and Merchants for the year 1875. By 
Frederick Martin. Twelfth Annual Publication. Revised 
after Official Returns. Crown Svo. 10s. 6d. 
The Statesman? s Year-Book is the only work in the English language 
which furnishes a clear and concise account of the actual condition of all 
the States of Europe, the civilized countries of America, Asia, and 
Africa, and the British Colonies and Dependencies in all parts of the 
world. The new issue of the work has been revised and corrected, on the 
basis of official reports received direct from the heads of the leading Govern- 
ments of the world, in reply to letters sent to them by the Editor. Through 
the valuable assista7tce thus given, it has been possible to collect an amount 
of information, political, statistical, and commercial, of the latest date, and 
of unimpeachable trustworthiness, such as no publication of the same 
kind has ever been able to furnish. " As indispensable as Bradshaw." — 
Times. 

Phillimore.— PRIVATE LAW AMONG THE ROMANS, 
from the Pandects. By John George Phillimore, Q. C. 8vo. 
16s. 

Rogers.— COBDEN AND POLITICAL OPINION. By J. E. 

Thorold Rogers. 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
" Will be found most useful by politicians of every school, as it forms a 
sort of handbook to Cobderfs teachi?ig. v — ATHENiEUM. 

Smith. — Works by Professor Goldwin Smith : — 

A LETTER TO A WHIG MEMBER OF THE SOUTHERN 
INDEPENDENCE ASSOCIATION. Extra fcap. 8vo. 2s. 

THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN: PYM, CROMWELL, 
PITT. A Course of Lectures on the Political History of England. 
Extra fcap. 8vo. New and Cheaper Edition. $s. 

Social Duties Considered with Reference to the 

ORGANIZATION OF EFFORT IN WORKS OF BE- 
NEVOLENCE AND PUBLIC UTILITY. By a Man of 
Business. (William Rathbone.) Fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d. 

Stephen (C. E.)— the service of the poor ; 

Being an Inquiry into the Reasons for and against the Establish- 
ment of Religious Sisterhoods for Charitable Purposes. By 
Caroline Emilia Stephen. Crown Svo. 6s. 6d. 

' \ The ablest advocate of a better line of work in this di}'ection than we 
Jiave ever seen." — Examiner. 



WORKS ON LANGUAGE. 



25 



Thornton.— Works by W. T. Thornton, C.I].:— 

ON LABOUR : Its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues ; Its 
Actual Present State and Possible Future. Second Edition, re- 
vised. Svo. 14J. 

A PLEA FOR PEASANT PROPRIETORS : With the Outlines 
of a Plan for their Establishment in Ireland. New Edition, 
revised. Crown Svo. Js. 6d. 



WORKSCONNECTED WITH THE SCIENCE 
OR THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGE. 

Abbott.— A SHAKESPERIAN GRAMMAR: An Attempt to 
illustrate some of the Differences between Elizabethan and Modern 
English. By the Rev. E. A. Abbott, M.A., Head Master of the 
City of London School. For the Use of Schools. New and 
Enlarged Edition. Extra fcap. Svo. 6s. 
"Valuable not only as an aid to the critical study of Shakespeare, 

$ut as tending to familiarize the reader with Elizabethan English in 

general. " — Athenaeum. 

Besant.— studies in early French poetry. By 

Walter Besant, M. A. Crown 8vo. &s. 6d. 

Breymann. — A FRENCH GRAMMAR BASED ON PHILO- 
LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. By Hermann Breymann, Ph.D., 
Lecturer on French Language and Literature at Owens College, 
Manchester. Extra fcap. Svo. 4$*. 6d. 

ii We dismiss the work with every feeling of satisfaction. It cannot 
fail to be taken into use by all schools which endeavour to make the study 
of French a means towards the higher culture?* — Educational Times. 

Hadley.— ESSAYS PHILOLOGICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Selected from the Papers of James Hadley, LL.D., Professor of 
Greek in Yale College, &c. Svo. \6s. 

" Rarely have we read a book which gives us so high a conception of the 
writer's whole nature ; the verdicts are clear and well-balanced, and 
there is not a line of unfair, or even unkindly criticism." — ATHENAEUM. 

Hales.— LONGER ENGLISH POEMS. With Notes, Philo- 
logical and Explanatory, and an Introduction on the Teaching of 
English. Chiefly for use in Schools. Edited by J. W. Hales, 
M.A., late Fellow and Assistant Tutor of Christ's College, Cam- 
bridge ; Lecturer in English Literature and Classical Composition 
at King's College School, London; &c. &c. Third Edition. 
Extra fcap. Svo. 4^ 6d. 



26 



MACMILLAJSTS CATALOGUE OF 



Hare.— FRAGMENTS OF TWO ESSAYS IN EXGLISH 
PHILOLOGY. By the late Julius Charles Hare, M.A., 
Archdeacon of Lewes. Svo. $s. 6d. 

Helfenstein (James).— a COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR 

OF THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES : Being at the same 
time a Historical Grammar of the English Language, and com- 
prising Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Early English, Modern English, 
Icelandic (Old Norse), Danish, Swedish, Old High German, 
Middle High German, Modem German, Old Saxon, Old Frisian, 
and Dutch. By James Helfenstein, Ph.D. Svo. iSs. 

Morris. — Works by the Rev. Richard Morris, LL.D., Member 
of the Council of the Philol. Soc, Lecturer on English Language 
and Literature in King's College School, Editor of " Specimens 
of Early English," etc., etc. 
HISTORICAL OUTLINES OF ENGLISH ACCIDENCE, 
comprising Chapters on the History and Development of the 
Language, and on "Word-formation. Fourth Edition. Fcap. Svo. 
6s. 

ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN HISTORICAL ENGLISH 
GRAMMAR, containing Accidence and Word-formation. iSmo. 
is. 6d. 

Oliphant. — the sources of standard English. 

By T. L. Kington Oliphant, of Balliol College, Oxford. 

Extra fcap. Svo. 6s. 
"3fr. Oliphant s bock is, to our mind, one of the ablest and most 
scholarly contributions to our standard English we Jiave seen for many 
years." — School Board Chronicle. "The book comes nearer to a 
history of the English language than anything toe have seen since such a 
history could be written, without confusion and contradictions" — 
Saturday Review. , 

Peile (John. M.A.)— AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK 
AND LATIN ETYMOLOGY. By John Peile, M.A., 

Fellow and Assistant Tutor of Christ's College, Cambridge, 
formerly Teacher of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge. 
New and revised Edition. Crown Svo. 10s. 6d. 
' '''The book may be accepted as a very valuable contribution to the 
science of language." — Saturday Review. 

Philology. — THE JOURNAL OF SACRED AND CLAS- 
SICAL PHILOLOGY. Four Yols. Svo. 12s. 6d. 
THE JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY. New Series. Edited by W. 
G. Clark, M.A., Tohn E. B. Mayor, M.A., and W. Aldis 
Wright, M.A. Nos. L, IL, III., and IV. Svo. 4*. 6d. each. 
(Half-yearly.) 



WORKS ON LANGUAGE. 



27 



Roby (H. J.)— A GRAMMAR OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE, 
FROM PLAUTUS TO SUETONIUS. By Henry John 
Roby, M.A., late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
In Two Parts. Part I. containing : — Book I. Sounds. Book II. 
Inflexions. Book III. Word Formation. Appendices. Second 
Edition. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. Part II. — Syntax, Prepositions, 
&c. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
"The book is marked by the clear and practical insight of a master in 

his art. It is a book which would do honour to any country" 

Athen^UM. "Brings before the student in a methodical form t/ie best 
results of i?wdern philology bearing on the Latin language." — Scotsman. 

Taylor. — Works by the Rev. Isaac Taylor, M.A.:— 
ETRUSCAN RESEARCHES. With Woodcuts. 8vo. 14*. 
The Times says: — "The learning and industry displayed in this 
volume deserve the most cordial recognition. The ultimate verdict of 
science we shall not attempt to anticipate ; but we can safely say this, that 
it is a learned book which the tmlearned can enjoy, and that in the de- 
scriptions of the tomb-builders^ as well as in the mai vellous coincidences 
and unexpected analogies brought together by the author, readers of every 
grade may take delight as well as philosophers and scholars.'''' 

WORDS AND PLACES ; or, Etymological Illustrations of 
History, Ethnology, and Geography. By the Rev. Isaac Taylor. 
Third Edition, revised and compressed. With Maps. Globe 
8vo. 6s. 

In this edition the work has been recast with the intention of fitting it 
for the tise of students and general reorders, rather tha?z^ as before, to 
appeal to the judgment of philologers. 

Trench. — Works by R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., Archbishop of 
Dublin. (For other Works by the same Author, see Theological 
Catalogue.) 

Archbishop Trench has done much to spread an interest in the history 
of our English tongue, and the Athenaeum says, "his sober judgment 
and sound sense are barriers against the 7nisleading influence of ai'bitrary 
hypotheses." 

SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. New Edition, 

enlarged. 8vo. cloth. 12s : 
"He is," the Athenaeum says, "a guide in this department of 
knowledge to whom his readers may entrust themselves with confidence" 

ON THE STUDY OF WORDS. Lectures Addressed (originally) 
to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training School, Winchester. 
Fifteenth Edition, enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 45*. 6d. 

ENGLISH PAST AND PRESENT. Eighth Edition, revised 
and improved. Fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d. 



23 



M A CM ILL A N'S CATALOGUE. 



Trench (R. C.) — continued. 

A SELECT GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH WORDS USED 
FORMERLY IN SENSES DIFFERENT FROM THEIR 
PRESENT. Fourth Edition, Enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 4^. 

ON SOME DEFICIENCIES IN OUR ENGLISH DICTION- 
ARIES : Being the substance of Two Papers read before the 
Philological Society. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 
8vo. $s. 

Whitney.— A COMPENDIOUS GERMAN GRAMMAR. By 
W. D. Whitney, Professor of Sanskrit and Instructor in Modern 
Languages in Yale College. Crown Svo. 6s. 
"After careful examination we are inclined to pronounce it the best 

grammar of modern language zve have ever seen.''' — Scotsman. 

Wood — Works by H. T. W. WOOD, B.A., Clare College,, 
Cambridge : — 

THE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH AND 
FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. 

CHANGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE BETWEEN 
THE PUBLICATION OF WICLIF'S BIBLE AND THAT 
OF THE AUTHORIZED VERSION; a.d. 1400 to a. d. 1600. 
Crown Svo. is. 6d. 

Yonge.— HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN NAMES. By Char- 
lotte M. Yonge, Author of "The Heir of Redclyfte/'' Two 
Vols, Crown Svo. il, is. 



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